Select Media Mentions
MarketWatch: Jeff Bezos spent more on this house in Beverly Hills than Amazon has paid so far in federal corporate income tax for 2019
February 20, 2020
Amazon listed a “summary” of its 2019 U.S. taxes as including $2.4 billion in other federal taxes, including payroll taxes and customs duties, and more than $1.6 billion in state and local taxes. The company also noted that it remitted nearly $9 billion in sales and use taxes to states and localities in accordance with […]
Washington Post: White House advisers privately float minimum tax on corporations amid blowback over 2017 GOP law
February 20, 2020
Opponents of the tax law such as presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have assailed the GOP and multibillion-dollar corporations for allegedly paying $0 in federal taxes under the new law. Ninety-one companies on the Fortune 500 paid $0 in federal corporate taxes in 2018, more than double the amount in previous years, according to […]
Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Tax reform may be more lucrative than advertised for corporations
February 20, 2020
Many of Minnesota’s major corporations paid lower tax rates in 2018 than new, dramatically lower corporate tax rates. That was among the findings in an analysis of government filings by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). ITEP, a nonprofit that gathers data to show how “taxes affect public revenue and people of various […]
Factcheck.org: FactChecking the Las Vegas Democratic Debate
February 20, 2020
There were indeed reports last year, prompted by the findings of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, indicating that the two companies and others paid no federal income taxes in 2018. The ITEP more recently noted, based on a Securities and Exchange Commission filing for 2019, that Amazon “paid $162 million of federal income taxes, a bit more than […]
Yahoo! Finance: In Search of the ‘Disappearing Corporate Income Tax’
February 12, 2020
Those losses, driven by generous rule-writing and interpretations of the 2017 tax law by the U.S. Treasury, are so substantial that they were deemed “tax cuts 2.0” by the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. (You can read more about the revision in a recent blog post from CBO director Phillip Swagel, and in […]
Maine Beacon: Report: Maine losing $52 million annually to corporations using offshore tax havens
February 10, 2020
The amount of money U.S. companies move through tax havens is considerable. Fortune 500 companies made $2.6 trillion in offshore profits in 2016, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
Politifact: Fact-checking the Democratic claim that Amazon doesn’t pay taxes
February 7, 2020
Short answer: Amazon’s tax returns are private, so we don’t know for sure what Amazon pays in federal taxes. But Amazon’s estimates on its annual 10-K filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are the closest information we have on this matter. They show mixed results for the past three years: no federal income […]
CBSNews.com: Amazon paid a tax rate of just 1.2% last year, versus 14% for average Americans
February 7, 2020
Amazon isn’t alone, of course. Hundreds of U.S. companies now pay tax rates that are lower than those many Americans pay. A study late last year from the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that Fortune 500 companies pay an average tax rate of 11.3%. Read more
Yahoo! Finance: Amazon paid a 1.2% tax rate on $13,285,000,000 in profit for 2019
February 7, 2020
Matthew Gardner, senior fellow for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), who analyzes corporations and their tax avoidance, says there’s “no meaningful” connection between Amazon and many of the taxes it listed in its announcement. Instead, the company lists taxes it collects on behalf of the U.S. government, like payroll taxes and sales […]
The Sun: AMAZON’S DIME Amazon paid just ONE per cent tax after making $13BILLION profit leaving taxpayers with jus $162million
February 7, 2020
One expert found ‘no meaningful’ link between Amazon and the tax payments in the SEC filing. Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote: “Economists agree that payroll taxes are ultimately paid by employees in the form of reduced compensation. “Like the sales tax, the payroll tax is one […]
Fox Business: Amazon paid tax rate of 1.2% on $13B in profits last year
February 7, 2020
“This means that instead of avoiding 100 percent of its income tax liability, Amazon appears to have avoided only 94 percent of its tax bill last year,” Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote in a blog post. Read more
The Daily Mail: Amazon paid only $162M in US federal taxes in 2019 after making $13BILLION in profit – an effective rate of just one per cent
February 7, 2020
Taxes collected on behalf of the government for payroll and from online sales from third-party vendors don’t count as taxes paid. The expert wrote in a post made for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that ‘economists agree that payroll taxes are ultimately paid by employees in the form of reduced compensation.’ ‘Like the sales […]
Politico: Cloudy Forecast for Tax Law Fixes
February 6, 2020
DECOUPLING DEDUCTIONS: Two-thirds of states with property tax deductions set a $10,000 ceiling along the lines of the TCJA’s cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning group that considers such deductions regressive. Many states tightly link their tax […]
International Business Times: Amazon Only Paid 1.2% Taxes In 2019 Despite $13 Billion Profit
February 6, 2020
Yahoo Finance, however, pointed that with the exception of the federal income tax, the listed amounts aren’t actually taxes Amazon paid to the federal government. There’s “no meaningful” connection between Amazon and many of the taxes it listed in its announcement, said Matthew Gardner, senior fellow for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) that […]
CNBC: Amazon had to pay federal income taxes for the first time since 2016 — here’s how much
February 4, 2020
However, paying something like payroll tax is hardly something to boast about, according to Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP, a nonpartisan and nonprofit tax policy think tank. In a blog post responding to Amazon’s release of its 2019 tax bill, Gardner notes that “economists agree […]
The Verge: Amazon finally owes federal income taxes this year — but we still don’t know how much it’s paying
February 4, 2020
t’s still, however, a low number compared to Amazon’s total profits. “It’s not fair to say [Amazon] paid nothing” on federal taxes anymore, says Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, whose reports have spurred coverage of Amazon’s taxes. “Clearly they’re not paying nothing. They’re paying very little.” Gardner takes issue with […]
Bond Buyer: IRS SALT regulation allows loophole for pass-through businesses
February 3, 2020
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Morning Call: Air Products collects $17 million tax rebate, one of many Fortune 500 companies that paid no corporate taxes
February 3, 2020
Air Products joined PPL, which during approximately the same period had a $19 million federal tax cut, according to the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Fortune 500 company PPL not only paid no federal taxes last year, it got a $19 million rebate; it says it has invested those savings » The institute […]
Seattle Times: Amazon touts 2019 federal taxes, but the picture is complicated
January 31, 2020
So was Amazon’s 2019 U.S. federal income tax bill $1 billion or $162 million? The discrepancy stems from different financial statements companies prepare for tax authorities and investors, which recognize revenues and expenses at different times. Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and a longtime watcher of corporate […]
Gizmodo: Amazon’s Tax Claims Are Riddled with BS
January 31, 2020
According to Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, these numbers are, at best, misleading. “You look at the different types of taxes that they’re collecting here—and they don’t say ‘pay’, they say ‘collect’—and there’s a reason for that. The biggest number on this list is the sales and […]
USA Today: State taxes: Which are the most tax-friendly states for the wealthy?
January 29, 2020
Wealthier Americans tend to pay a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than lower-income Americans. According to a 2018 report released by The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, the highest-earning 1% of American families pay just 7.4% of their income in state and local taxes […]
Scroll.in: At the centre of the US government and Facebook’s tax dispute is the company’s Dublin office
January 27, 2020
If the IRS prevails in court, it could cost Facebook up to $9 billion more in taxes, based on estimates in the company’s securities filings. It would be a notable defeat for a company that, when it comes to risky tax avoidance, has been more aggressive “than almost any other US corporation,” said Matt Gardner, […]
Washington Post: Va. Governor Proposes Gas Tax Increase
January 27, 2020
Virginia would join 31 states that have raised or reformed their gas tax in the last decade, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
The Washington Spectator: Tax Policy Options for the Next Administration
January 26, 2020
Bernie Sanders has proposed taxing estates worth more than $3.5 million. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that this would raise more than $30 billion a year. Another reform would generate a good deal more revenue—ending the so-called “step-up” provision of capital gains. When heirs receive an asset, they don’t owe taxes on […]
Members of the media rely on ITEP for analysis and insight about how tax policies affect people. If you’re a reporter looking to talk to one of our experts, contact Jon Whiten at [email protected].
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