American Prospect: Avoid Taxes, Receive Federal Bailouts

On that haul, they paid an average effective federal income tax rate of 2.3 percent. According to Matthew Gardner at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, that rate is actually inflated by Southwest Airlines, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the income taxes paid by this group. “The other six—Delta, American, United, Alaska Airlines, Spirit and Jetblue—paid effective rates in the single digits or negative during this two-year period,” he wrote in early March. Delta, JetBlue, and Alaska all paid an effective federal tax rate of zero or less in 2018. Read more