Select Media Mentions
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 […]
Business Insider: Treasury Secretary Mnuchin keeps insisting Trump’s tax cuts will pay for themselves despite consistent evidence they exploded the federal deficit
January 25, 2020
It’s soaring because the government is collecting fewer tax dollars as a result of the cuts. One study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think-tank, released in December suggested corporate taxes are at a 40-year low. Read more
New York Times: As States Add Money to Fix Roads, U.S. Is Urged to Ante Up
January 25, 2020
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, most states have raised their gasoline taxes over the last several years. Along with the ballot initiatives passed to support highway projects, states could take a bigger role in their own infrastructure destinies. Ironically, more state-level control and funding is one of the tent poles of […]
Politico: The Power of Semantics
January 24, 2020
States’ use of tax incentives to lure the filming of movies and television shows is one of those policy ideas that experts of basically all political persuasions are against — believing that the costs in revenue far outweighs the economic benefits generally trumpeted by politicians and Hollywood. (One example: “The competition among states on this […]
ProPublica: Who’s Afraid of the IRS? Not Facebook
January 23, 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 U.S. corporation,” said Matt Gardner, […]
ProPublica: The IRS Decided to Get Tough Against Microsoft. Microsoft Got Tougher.
January 22, 2020
Microsoft, meanwhile, has continued to reap the benefits of its offshore deals. In 2017, the last year before the new tax law cut the corporate rate from 35% to 21%, Microsoft paid $2.4 billion in taxes on $29.9 billion in income, a rate of 8%. By that point, Microsoft had stored $142 billion in profits […]
McClatchy: Lifting the Cap on This Tax Break Would Benefit California’s Rich
January 17, 2020
The figures were developed by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. to project the likely effects if the Democrats’ proposal went into effect in 2022. That’s likely the earliest year when Democrats could have their policies go into full effect if the party takes control of the White House and Congress in 2021. […]
Hartford Business Journal: CT Voices proposes major state tax shift to reverse inequality
January 16, 2020
And creation of a new Child Tax Credit could provide poor and middle-income residents — even those earning nearly $500,000 per year — as much as $800 to $1,550 on each filer’s annual refund. “The child tax credit has been found to have staggering impacts on poverty reduction,” said Meg Wiehe, deputy executive director for […]
The Colorado Sun: Colorado progressives have a new target in their pursuit of a tax overhaul: the rich. Here’s why.
January 16, 2020
More progressive taxes aren’t a panacea for income inequality, either. With a top rate of 12.3%, plus a 1% millionaire tax, California has the most progressive tax code in the country, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. It is also the seventh most unequal, with the wealthiest 1% making 30 times […]
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