NPR: Report Shows Many Profitable Companies Pay No State Income Taxes
media mentionby Chris Lehman
December 6, 2011
Dozens of Fortune 500 companies paid no net state income taxes over the past three years, including one in the Pacific Northwest. That’s one of the findings of a report issued Wednesday by a liberal think tank.
The report examined federal Securities and Exchange Commission filings from the more than half of Fortune 500 companies that reported profits over the past three years. Those filings show how much each company paid in state income taxes nationwide. The results varied widely, even among companies in the same industry. Juan Carlos Ordonez is with the watchdog group Oregon Center for Public Policy. He says the findings demonstrate how little information is available about how tax loopholes are used.
“Ultimately we don’t know exactly how it is that some corporations end up paying nothing in some years, even as they report big profits to their shareholders,” says Ordonez.
The report shows of the Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Oregon and Washington, only Bellevue-based truck manufacturer PACCAR paid no net state income taxes despite reporting a profit. The study comes from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic