Corporate Taxes
ITEP’s corporate tax research examines the tax practices of major corporations. Besides its corporate study on average effective tax rates paid by the nation’s largest, most profitable corporations, throughout the year, ITEP produces research on subjects such as offshore cash holdings, tax haven abuse, executive stock options and other tax loopholes. See ITEP’s more recent study of profitable corporations’ tax rates.
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Corporate Tax Avoidance
Corporate profits continue to soar while corporate tax avoidance reaches extreme levels.
At Least 88 Profitable U.S. Corporations Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2025
At least 88 of the largest corporations in America paid $0 in federal income tax for 2025. Corporate tax avoidance…
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Meta’s Outlandish Tax Breaks for AI Data Centers
September 30, 2026 • By Steve Wamhoff
Meta is claiming the research tax credit – a tax break meant to encourage innovation and experimentation – to pay for the equipment it uses in data centers to power its AI activities. ITEP described how Meta paid just 3.5% of its profits in federal corporate income taxes in 2025.
Big Tech Is Raking in Enormous Tax Breaks for AI Development
September 17, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner
OBBBA’s expensing provision is becoming especially lucrative for the companies building out AI infrastructure right now. There is no evidence whatsoever that tax breaks are necessary to encourage their construction.
TurboTax Maker Intuit Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2025
September 11, 2026 • By Joe Hughes
TurboTax maker Intuit reported nearly $6 billion in U.S. profits in 2025 and paid no federal income tax. Instead, the company received a refund, thanks in part to new tax breaks from OBBBA.
The Biggest Winners from Trump’s Tariff Refunds are Big Corporations
September 3, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner
The Trump administration has been forced to pay out over $100 billion from illegal tariffs, and the biggest winners from these tariff refunds have been big corporations.
The Trump Administration Slashed Taxes for H&R Block and Raised Costs for Tax Filers
August 20, 2026 • By Joe Hughes
Tax-prep giant H&R Block paid no federal taxes on its U.S. income in 2025. It also made a public disclosure, required by the European Union, characterizing one-third of its global profits as earned in Ireland, a low-tax country where the company offers no tax services and has only 15 employees.
Six Companies Reaped $83 Billion in Federal Tax Breaks in 2025
August 14, 2026 • By Sarah Buttikofer, Matthew Gardner
Six companies alone accounted for $83 billion of federal tax breaks disclosed by publicly traded U.S companies so far for 2025. Microsoft received a record high for single-year federal tax breaks for one publicly traded company, followed by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, JPMorgan Chase, and Nvidia.
How Federal Tax Policy Can Address AI
August 10, 2026 • By Steve Wamhoff, Joe Hughes, Erika Frankel
Congress could use its taxing power to ensure a fairer distribution of the fruits of labor, innovation and investment, address the specific harms (the negative externalities) of AI specifically, and acquire a public stake in the companies that are driving the AI revolution.
Trump Says Exxon and Chevron Are Ripping Off Americans, But His Own Policies Are to Blame
August 4, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner
President Trump lashed out at ExxonMobil and Chevron for “making too much money." These companies are reporting enormous profits right now, partly the result of Trump’s war in Iran but also due to the corporate tax policies he's passed during his time in office.
Microsoft Reports a 2.44 Percent Federal Tax Rate on a Record $101 Billion in Profits
July 29, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner
Microsoft avoided federal income tax on almost all of its U.S. income for fiscal year 2026. The company’s 2.44 percent federal tax rate on over $100 billion of U.S. income is largely attributable to tax breaks that were either created or expanded by Republican tax cuts enacted at the behest of President Donald Trump in 2017 and 2025.
Flying Under the Tax Radar: How Profitable Airlines Avoided Federal Income Taxes in 2025
July 27, 2026 • By Sarah Buttikofer, Spandan Marasini
Corporate tax disclosures reveal that five profitable airlines paid almost nothing in federal income tax last year. In 2025, the effective federal income tax rates of these airlines ranged from 1.07 percent to below zero.
Trump Administration Says Shining Light on Corporate Tax Avoidance is ‘Very Dangerous’
July 14, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner
Administration officials appear far more concerned about the public knowing too much about how U.S. corporations shift their income into offshore tax havens.
New EU Disclosure Requirements Are Helping Identify Corporate Tax Avoiders
June 30, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner
Microsoft reports a huge share of its worldwide profit in low-tax Ireland and is achieving this despite having a very small share of its employees there. As other companies make similar disclosures between now and the end of calendar year 2026, investors and the public will likely get a much clearer sense of how much profit corporations are hiding offshore—and how much tax they’re avoiding by doing so.
Why Corporations Must Pay More
June 22, 2026 • By Steve Wamhoff, Amy Hanauer
Corporate tax reforms could be more resilient than proposals to tax wealth or unrealized capital gains while achieving the same goal of more adequately taxing the income of billionaires.
The Final Frontier of Tax Avoidance: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Has $1.9 Billion to Gain from Defunding the IRS
June 12, 2026 • By Matthew Gardner
A year after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut a swath of destruction through vital federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, Musk’s apparent antipathy toward the IRS suddenly makes more sense.
Major Oil and Gas Corporations Pay Little in U.S. Tax
May 29, 2026 • By Claire Lynch
The oil and gas industry has long been known for widespread tax avoidance. Now, thanks to new disclosure rules, we have a better picture of how this occurs.
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