Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

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Washington Post: Biden Says He’s Open to Compromise with Republicans on $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

Fifty-five corporations saw zero federal tax liability in 2020, according to a report this week by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. The amount of corporate tax revenue raised by the government has fallen from above 2 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product before the GOP tax law […]

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Forbes: Why Biden’s Right and Higher Corporate Tax Rates Won’t Chase Off Companies

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

By the end of 2020, the effective tax rate was 14.1%. As Biden noted, 55 major corporations—including Nike, FedEx, Salesforce, and Archer Daniels Midland, and HP—paid no federal income tax in 2020, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. There are those who would immediately say that it’s all due to losses. […]

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Business Insider: Biden Wants a 28% Corporate Tax Rate Because He’s ‘Sick and Tired of Ordinary People Being Fleeced’

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

The president also blasted companies paying little or no federal taxes without naming them. He cited a recent report from the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that found 55 US multinational corporations paid $0 in income taxes last year. That roster included household names like FedEx, Nike, and HP among others. Read more

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Los Angeles Times: Column: Jeff Bezos Likes Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Because He Knows It’s Worth the Money

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

As for raising the corporate tax rate, America’s CEOs might object, but let’s recognize that for many big corporations the statutory corporate tax rate is merely theoretical. As the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has documented, 55 major corporations paid zero income tax on their profits in 2020. Among them were several that are […]

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MSNBC: Amazon CEO Supports Higher Corporate Taxes to Pay for Infrastructure Plan

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Tuesday voiced support for raising the corporate tax rate but stopped short of saying he supports the president’s plan for the increase. The panel discusses Bezos’ remarks and how 55 big U.S. companies avoided federal taxes in 2020. Watch here

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CNN: Avlon Reacts to McConnell’s Advice to Corporations

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

“In fact, there were at least 55 profitable companies among the Fortune 500 and S&P 500 that paid no federal tax in 2020. That’s according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The number of businesses that paid no income tax for the past three years, though, is half that–26–according to the report.” Watch […]

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American Prospect: Biden, Wyden, and Yellen: Bring Investment Home!

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

This is all popular stuff. Poll after poll has shown large majorities of Americans favor raising taxes on the rich and on big corporations, and the majorities on these issues are likely to grow even more lopsided as corporate tax evasion comes under a brightening spotlight. ITEP, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, has […]

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New York Times: Jeff Bezos says Amazon, a Notable Tax Avoider, Supports Raising Corporate Taxes.

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

For years, Amazon has been a model for corporate tax avoidance, fielding criticism of its tax strategies from Democrats and former President Donald J. Trump. In 2019, Amazon had an effective tax rate of 1.2 percent, which was offset by tax rebates in 2017 and 2018, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, […]

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(Ohio) ABC News 5: Three Ohio Energy Giants Haven’t Paid Federal Income Taxes in Three Years

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

In fact, Akron-based FirstEnergy, Columbus-based AEP and Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy had negative effective tax rates, according to the report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit, non-partisan think tank. The paper, which analyzed tax disclosures in the corporations’ annual reports, found that 55 profitable companies didn’t pay any federal income tax […]

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CEO Magazine: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Notably Backs Increasing Corporate Tax

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

In 2020, Amazon paid an effective federal income tax rate of 9.4 per cent, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a not-for-profit non-partisan think tank, also reported at least 55 of the largest corporations in the US paid no federal corporate income taxes in their […]

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Common Dreams: Will the United States Ever Become a Strong Nation for the Common Good? (Opinion)

April 7, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

A new study reports that at least 55 of the biggest corporations paid a goose egg in U.S. income taxes last year — zero, nada — despite hauling in billions in profits. As Sen. Bernie Sanders points out: “If you paid $120 for a pair of Nike Air Force 1 shoes, you paid more to […]

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Business Insider: Jeff Bezos says Amazon Supports a Corporate-tax Hike, Arguing that Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Will Require ‘Concessions from All Sides’

April 6, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

After Biden’s plan was proposed last week, the Business Roundtable, an organization that represents CEOs of major US firms, issued a statement strongly opposing the tax increase as a way to pay for the infrastructure plan, saying it would create “new barriers to job creation and economic growth.” Amazon has long been accused of not […]

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BBC: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Backs Tax Rise on Companies

April 6, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

Analysts say changes to those rules are likely to stir stronger opposition from businesses than the rise in the corporate rate, which many companies do not face, thanks to deductions and other credits. In 2020, Amazon paid an effective federal income tax rate of 9.4%, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read […]

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(Connecticut) Middletown-Press: Stamford-based Charter Communications Paid No Federal Income Taxes in 2020, New Report Shows

April 6, 2021 • By Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff

The treatment of Charter and the 54 other companies “continues a decades-long trend of corporate tax avoidance by the biggest U.S. corporations, and it appears to be the product of longstanding tax breaks preserved or expanded by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as well as the CARES Act tax breaks enacted in the […]

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Bloomberg: Biden Tax Plan Seen Hitting Tech, Pharmaceutical Companies

April 6, 2021 • By Matthew Gardner

The provisions — part of the administration’s plan to finance a $2.25 trillion infrastructure package — mean that tech and pharmaceutical companies could lose many of the tax-planning tools that allowed them to pay low rates for years. “This is aiming to prevent gaming the system entirely,” said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the […]

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NPR: Janet Yellen Proposes Bold Idea: The Same Minimum Corporate Tax Around The World

April 5, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

The left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy notes that 55 big corporations — including Nike, FedEx and Duke Energy — paid no federal income taxes in the most recent fiscal year, despite reporting a collective profit of more than $40 billion to their shareholders. Read more

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The Telegraph: Biden's $3trillion tax hikes find public support despite Republican resistance

April 5, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

In 2017, then-President Donald Trump signed a new bill law that slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent. A report out this week found from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that 55 large US companies, including major brands such as Nike, paid no federal taxes last […]

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CBS News: Dozens of Profitable U.S. Companies Haven’t Had a Federal Tax Expense since Trump’s Rate Cut

April 5, 2021 • By Matthew Gardner

More than two dozen large U.S. companies have made a collective $77 billion in domestic profits in the past three years without any expectation of having to immediately pay federal taxes on their bounty. Indeed, they haven’t expensed a single dollar for current federal taxes since Donald Trump pushed through a massive tax cut for […]

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Wall Street Journal: A 28% Tax Rate Will Cost Companies, but Not Equally

April 5, 2021 • By Matthew Gardner

Supporters say the tax increase cannot be looked at in isolation. Domestic companies and American workers stand to benefit from the Biden administration’s proposal to spend more than $2 trillion on infrastructure and other improvements, said Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “I don’t think you can […]

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Washington Post: Dozens of America’s Biggest Businesses Paid No Federal Income Tax Again

April 5, 2021 • By Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff

Fifty-five of the nation’s largest corporations paid no federal income tax on more than $40 billion in profits last year, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive think tank. In fact, they received a combined federal rebate of more than $3 billion, for an effective tax rate of […]

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Washington Post: Republicans Struggle to Defend Corporate Tax Windfall (Opinion)

April 5, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

Corporations are hard-pressed to scream poverty. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found 55 big companies that paid no federal income taxes at all last year: “The tax-avoiding companies represent various industries and collectively enjoyed almost $40.5 billion in U.S. pretax income in 2020, according to their annual financial reports.” Had they actually paid […]

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Fiscal Times: Dozens of Major Corporations Paid No Federal Income Taxes in 2020: Report

April 5, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

At least 55 large corporations paid no federal corporate income taxes in 2020, according to a new analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The companies in the analysis had more than $40 billion in pre-tax income and would have paid about $8.5 billion in taxes at the 21% corporate tax rate. But […]

ITEP Work in Action  

Louisiana Budget Project: Who Pays? Racial Injustice in Louisiana’s Tax System

April 5, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

Historic and current injustices – both in public policy and in society more broadly – have resulted in vast disparities in income across race and ethnicity in Louisiana. Unfortunately, our tax system plays an active role in worsening these disparities by asking those with the least to contribute the largest share of their income to […]

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MSNBC: Many Corporate Giants (Once Again) Paid No Federal Income Taxes

April 5, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

A couple of years ago, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released the results of a detailed study that found of the Fortune 500 companies, about 400 paid an average tax rate of about 11% — roughly half of the current rate of 21% — thanks to a series of loopholes, exemptions, and giveaways […]

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Pittsburgh Business Times: Pittsburgh Company among 55 that Paid Zero Corporate Income Tax

April 5, 2021 • By ITEP Staff

At least 55 of the biggest and best-known companies in the country didn’t pay federal corporate income taxes during their most recent fiscal year. That includes Pittsburgh’s 11th-largest public company. According to a recently released report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the businesses collectively had almost $40.5 billion in U.S. pretax income […]