Corporate Taxes
114 Profitable Corporations Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2025
• By ITEP Staff
There were 114 corporations that paid no federal income tax in 2025. That includes well-known companies like Tesla, Walt Disney, CVS, Citigroup, United Airlines, Palantir, and DoorDash.
Bigger Corporations, Bigger Tax Breaks: Consolidation Leads Six Corporations to Grab a Giant Share of Subsidies
• By Matthew Gardner
Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and J.P. Morgan Chase collectively raked in 42 percent of the total tax subsidies that 706 profitable U.S. corporations received in 2025.
The Consequences of 18 Months of Trump-Republican Tax Policy and Rising Prices
• By Michael Ettlinger
The first 18 months of President Trump’s second term have brought major changes in U.S. tax policy and taken several actions that have boosted inflation. These changes have had significant impacts on the lives of the American people. As a result, middle-income Americans are losing an average of $1,670 in 2026 overall.
After Two Rounds of Trump Tax Cuts, Corporate America Paid Less Than Ever in 2025
• By Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff, Joe Hughes, Spandan Marasini
In 2025, 706 major American corporations collectively paid a federal income tax rate of just 10.4% on $1.88 trillion in U.S. profits. This is the lowest effective rate that ITEP has uncovered in over 40 years of analyzing corporate income taxes.
Testimony: ITEP’s Nick Johnson weighs in on revenue options for the District of Columbia
• By Nick Johnson
A D.C. Business Activity Tax, or BAT, meets commonly held standards for sound tax policy.
Meta’s Outlandish Tax Breaks for AI Data Centers
• 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.
State Rundown 9/24: States Reckon with Tightening Fiscal Futures
• By ITEP Staff
States across the nation are reckoning with their tightening fiscal futures as inflation and economic woes continue to eat into their budgets.
Big Tech Is Raking in Enormous Tax Breaks for AI Development
• 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
• 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.
State Rundown 9/10: States Brace for (and in Some Cases Embrace) Ballots and Budgets
• By ITEP Staff
States across the country will consider a host of ballot measures that could reshape the fairness and adequacy of their states’ tax systems, while other states are receiving budget forecasts that could further shape upcoming policy debates.
2026 State Tax Ballot Measures to Watch
• By Aidan Davis
This fall, voters across the country will consider a host of ballot measures that could reshape the fairness and adequacy of their states’ tax systems. Here’s some of what we’re following.
The Biggest Winners from Trump’s Tariff Refunds are Big Corporations
• 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.
State Rundown 8/27: Tax Policy is Cool as Summer Wraps
• By ITEP Staff
With many state legislatures already adjourned, developments in tax policy have slowed.
Maryland Digital Advertising Ruling Shouldn’t Stop Other States from Considering Ad Taxes
• By Nick Johnson
Consumers are increasingly bombarded with advertisements based on our personal data. This explosion in targeted advertising is leading state policymakers to revisit the tax treatment of advertising, which has long been exempt from sales tax.
The Trump Administration Slashed Taxes for H&R Block and Raised Costs for Tax Filers
• 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.
Which States Have Not Decoupled from QSBS in 2026?
• By ITEP Staff
QSBS allows millionaire investors to pay zero income tax on their profits.
Six Companies Reaped $83 Billion in Federal Tax Breaks in 2025
• 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.
State Rundown 8/13: Income Tax Elimination Fails in Missouri
• By ITEP Staff
In a win for Missouri workers and families, voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed amendment that would have allowed lawmakers to replace the state's income tax with increased or expanded sales taxes.
How Federal Tax Policy Can Address AI
• 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
• 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.
Bloomberg News: Microsoft’s US Taxes Drop, Revenue Jumps After Trump Cuts
August 3, 2026
"We know that Microsoft in particular and tech sector more generally are spending huge amounts of money in the last year, especially the last six or last three months, on artificial intelligence," said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. "It's super clear that data center capex is eligible for depreciation."
Microsoft Reports a 2.44 Percent Federal Tax Rate on a Record $101 Billion in Profits
• 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.
State Rundown 7/29: The Misguided, Miserly Missouri Amendment to Eliminate the Income Tax
• By ITEP Staff
Missouri voters are facing a major decision at the ballot box next week on Amendment 5, which would amend the state constitution to allow lawmakers to eliminate the individual income tax and expand the state’s sales tax on any good or service to make up for lost revenue.
Flying Under the Tax Radar: How Profitable Airlines Avoided Federal Income Taxes in 2025
• 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.
The Changing Landscape of State Tax Rates
• By Sarah Austin
Many states have repeatedly cut top personal and corporate income tax rates in recent years, sometimes while approving increased sales tax rates to push tax systems in a more regressive direction. Other states, however, have charted a very different course and have moved to increase taxes on higher income households to fund public services.
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