Corporate Tax Avoidance
320 companies avoided $147,998,900,000 in federal income tax on $1.1 trillion of profit in 2025
320 companies avoided $147,998,900,000 in federal income tax on $1.1 trillion of profit in 2025
320 companies avoided
$147,998,900,000
in federal income tax on $1.1 trillion
of profit in 2025
With earnings season now underway, dozens of huge corporations have disclosed paying single-digit federal income tax rates thanks to tax cuts included in President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla collectively avoided $51 billion in federal income tax for 2025. Tesla and Palantir reported paying zero federal income tax at all.
President Trump’s 2017 tax law and the recently passed OBBBA have led to substantial tax avoidance from the nation’s largest corporations. Corporate profits continue to soar while corporate tax avoidance reaches extreme levels. That’s why reforming the corporate income tax and closing loopholes is so critical to a fair tax code.
Top Three Federal Tax Avoiders
Alphabet
Reported federal tax rate: 8.01%
Federal Tax breaks include
- Depreciation Deduction$3.3 billion
- FDII Deduction$3.9 billion
- R&D Credit$2.1 billion
- Stock Options$2.6 billion
Amazon.com
Reported federal tax rate: 1.37%
Federal Tax breaks include
- Depreciation Deduction$6.5 billion
- R&D Credit$2.4 billion
- Stock Options$2.6 billion
Meta
Reported federal tax rate: 3.57%
Federal Tax breaks include
- R&D Expensing$12.6 billion
- Depreciation Deduction$4.9 billion
- R&D Credit$3.9 billion
- Stock Options$4.3 billion
Recent Filings
SS&C Technologies Holdings
Reported federal tax rate: 7.73%
Federal Tax breaks include
- Depreciation Deduction$118 million
- R&D Credit$22.8 million
- Stock Options$28.6 million
Chewy
Reported federal tax rate: 0.51%
Federal Tax breaks include
- Depreciation Deduction$14.4 million
- R&D Credit$27 million
- Stock Options$15.9 million
- Other Tax Credits$1.5 million
Toll Brothers
Reported federal tax rate: 14.34%
Mosaic
Reported federal tax rate: -0.14%
Federal Tax breaks include
- Percentage Depletion$20.5 million
Shift4 Payments
Reported federal tax rate: 2.45%
Federal Tax breaks include
- Depreciation Deduction$1 million
- R&D Credit$1 million
Everpure
Reported federal tax rate: 0.79%
Federal Tax breaks include
- R&D Expensing$56.2 million
- Depreciation Deduction$34.7 million
- R&D Credit$41.8 million
- Stock Options$46.8 million
Companies are included here only if review of their 10-K filing for the 2025 fiscal year indicates that they avoided paying some amount of federal income taxes. Companies are counted as avoiding federal income tax if they are based in the US, reported a domestic pretax profit, and their federal ETR is less than the statutory 21%. Total tax avoided is the sum of the difference between the amount each company paid in federal income tax and 21% of their pretax profits. Individual tax reduction items are listed only for companies with a federal ETR below 15%.
Publications on Corporate Tax Avoidance (View All)
Why Corporations Must Pay More
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
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
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.
Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Received Almost 10 Percent of Corporate Tax Subsidies Last Year
Amazon received $17.5 billion in tax subsidies in 2025. That’s about 10% of all federal income tax subsidies for publicly traded corporations in 2025.
Progressives Need a Slight Course Correction on Tax Policy
Corporate tax reforms should be the backbone of any progressive tax agenda and should be counted on to remain if other changes to our tax code are later thwarted by any of the three branches of government.
A Resilient Framework for Corporate Tax Reform
The next time Congress is serious about making the wealthiest pay their fair share in federal taxes, they will need to make three key changes to the federal corporate income tax so that it applies effectively to all the businesses that generate their income.
Institute on Taxation
and Economic Policy
ITEP is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization. We conduct rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provide data-driven recommendations to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems.
Subscribe to ITEP Emails
Tax research and policy news in your inbox.
Promote Fair Tax Policy
Your gift to ITEP promotes tax justice. With your help, we do research that supports taxing millionaires and billionaires, taxing big corporations and raising revenue for the things our people, our communities and our planet need.
Together, we can create a country with more economic justice, more racial justice, more climate justice… and more tax justice.