Historically, our nation has enjoyed a well-educated and trained workforce, a robust interstate transportation system and an economy that is conducive to business development. All of these features support a competitive and advantageous business climate, which is why nearly 30 percent of the world’s top 2,000 firms have headquarters in the United States.
The basic educational, physical and economic infrastructure that allows business to thrive is paid for with tax dollars, meaning all of us—including corporations—have a tremendous stake in ensuring our federal government raises the revenue it needs to maintain an environment in which corporations can create jobs and help build the economy.
But as it is, corporations are not contributing their fair share.
In fact, corporate taxes as a percent of GDP declined from a high of 7.1 percent in 1945 to just 1.7 percent today.
ITEP’s corporate tax work focuses on the tax-paying habits of corporations, especially those in the Fortune 500. Our researchers carefully examine corporate filings and maintain and publish current and historic accounts of taxes paid (or not) by individual companies. Our work informs policymakers, media and the public about how current tax laws enable corporate tax avoidance and highlight the effect this has on the federal government’s ability to raise adequate revenue.
The effectiveness of our work is reflected in public opinion.
The vast majority of taxpayers believe corporations are not paying their fair share, and the recent corporate tax cuts are immensely unpopular. But there is far more work to be done to ensure our federal tax policies raise adequate revenue from corporations that continue to benefit substantially from the economy that our collective tax dollars make possible.
With your support, ITEP can continue this critical research and outreach to fix broken corporate tax codes and hold corporations accountable for contributing their fair share.
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