Associated Press: A Look At How US Corporations Manage the Tax System

Last year, more than 50 of the largest U.S. companies actually paid nothing in federal income taxes, even though they reported $40 billion in pretax profits as a group, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Companies can deploy many tools to avoid taxes — from deducting costs related to stock options they give executives to claiming tax credits by making investments that the government is trying to encourage. Some that do pay tax pay far less than the stated corporate rate. In 2020, for example, Amazon paid an effective federal income tax rate of just 9.4%, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says he supports an increase in the corporate tax rate.) Read more