One central idea of Trump’s tax cuts was to cut corporate tax rates from 35% to 21% but as the tax filings come in it is becoming increasingly clear that many companies are not even paying the lower rate, Matthew Gardner said. “You can’t lay the blame too much on Congress,” said Gardner. “It wasn’t Congress that came up with these ideas. They are the product of a lobbying blitz from these companies. These companies wrote the law in many cases.”
Matthew Gardner
Matt Gardner is a senior fellow at ITEP where he has worked since 1998. He previously served as ITEP’s executive director from 2006 to 2016. Matt’s work focuses on federal, state and local tax systems, with a particular emphasis on the impact of tax policies on low- and moderate-income taxpayers. He uses ITEP’s microsimulation model to produce economic projections and analyses on the effects of current and proposed federal and state tax and budget policies.
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media mention February 15, 2019 The Guardian: Amazon Made an $11.2bn Profit in 2018 – And Its Federal Tax Bill is $0
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blog February 13, 2019 Fear, Not Facts: Netflix Misleads Media Reporting on Corporate Tax Avoidance
In an age when even the most incontrovertible facts are routinely dismissed as “fake news,” reporting on corporate taxes can be a daunting challenge for members of the media. ITEP’s recent analysis of the income tax disclosures made by Netflix in its annual financial report last week provide an excellent reminder of this.
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media mention February 13, 2019 ORT: 2017 Tax Reform Helps Corporations The Most. Who Knew?
The Tax Reform bill of 2017 was supposed to close loopholes which had allowed corporations to avoid paying taxes, but a study by Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), of Netflix has shown that it reduced corporate taxes without closing the loopholes. He talks to Jan Miyasaki about the issues and how the trend to shift tax burden to the poor continues.
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blog February 13, 2019 Amazon in Its Prime: Doubles Profits, Pays $0 in Federal Income Taxes
Amazon, the ubiquitous purveyor of two-day delivery of just about everything, nearly doubled its profits to $11.2 billion in 2018 from $5.6 billion the previous year and, once again, didn’t pay a single cent of federal income taxes.
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media mention February 11, 2019 Cheddar: Netflix’s Tax Hack
Following is link to a video featuring Matt Gardner, ITEP senior fellow, discussing Netflix’s zero-tax bill. -
media mention February 9, 2019 The Guardian: How Did Netflix Get Away with Not Paying Income Tax in 2018
According to a blogpost from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the company posted its largest ever profit in 2018 – $845m – but paid no federal (or state)… -
media mention February 7, 2019 The Daily Mail: Netflix Paid NOTHING in Federal or State Taxes in 2018
Netflix didn’t pay a cent in state or federal income taxes last year, despite posting its largest-ever U.S. profit in 2018 of $845million, according to a new report. In addition,… -
blog February 5, 2019 Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Taxes
The popular video streaming service Netflix posted its largest-ever U.S. profit in 2018—$845 million—on which it didn’t pay a dime in federal or state income taxes. In fact, the company reported a $22 million federal income tax rebate.
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report February 5, 2019 Progressive Revenue-Raising Options
America has long needed a more equitable tax code that raises enough revenue to invest in building shared prosperity. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), enacted at the end of 2017, moved the federal tax code in the opposite direction, reducing revenue by $1.9 trillion over a decade, opening new loopholes, and providing its most significant benefits to the well-off. The law cut taxes on the wealthy directly by reducing their personal income taxes and estate taxes, and indirectly by reducing corporate taxes.
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media mention January 12, 2019 Oregonian: Profits Double, Tax Payments Fall at Nike, Attracting Attention of EU Regulators
By the end of 2017, Nike had $12.2 billion in permanently reinvested earnings. The company estimates that had it dispensed with the foreign strategy and kept that money in the… -
media mention December 22, 2018 Mother Jones: It’s Been a Year Since Trump Enacted Sweeping Tax Cuts. The Rich Won
The surge in buybacks comes with an “opportunity cost,” says Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “You can’t spend money on things like… -
blog December 7, 2018 Morgan Stanley Report Confirms Tax Cut Promises Made Are Promises Unkept
Almost a year after lawmakers hastily enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, evidence continues to mount that it is providing far more tax cuts than jobs. A new Morgan… -
blog November 27, 2018 GM Announcement Confirms Tax Cuts Don’t Prevent, May Encourage Layoffs
GM’s most recent quarterly financial report reveals the company has saved more than $150 million so far this year due to last year’s corporate tax cuts. So the layoffs announcement may seem especially jarring to anyone who believed President Trump’s claim that his tax cuts would spur job creation—including the Ohio residents Trump told directly “don’t sell your homes” because lost auto-making jobs “are all coming back.”
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media mention November 3, 2018 The New Yorker: If Jeff Bezos Makes Washington the Second Headquarters of Amazon
Earlier this year, Seattle’s city council passed a tax on large corporations aimed at raising an estimated forty-seven million dollars a year for affordable-housing initiatives. But after about a month the city council repealed the tax—in response to a ballot challenge funded in part by Amazon, which threatened to leave Seattle if the tax was implemented. Matthew Gardner, a tax-policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told the Washington Post, “Nobody on Seattle’s city council wants to be the one who chased Amazon out of town.”
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media mention October 22, 2018 The Real News Network: How Dismantling an Obscure Tax Created an American Aristocracy
Republicans’ decades-long efforts to gut the estate tax is creating a permanent ultra-rich class, and undermining the government’s ability to pay for popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.
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media mention October 12, 2018 PolitiFact: Do Trump Tariffs Cost More Than Affordable Care Act Taxes?
Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, added that regardless of imports volume, we don’t know how they will get passed through by the companies paying them, either. And not everyone has to pay them — consumers could simply redirect their demand.
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media mention October 12, 2018 WBOC16: Incorporating in Delaware: The Perks and Pitfalls
Some critics of Delaware LLCs say until Delaware’s corporate code is adjusted, criminal activity will continue to exist in Delaware’s corporations. Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, authored a report entitled “Delaware: An Onshore Tax Haven.”
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media mention September 14, 2018 The Inquisitor: Amazon Proposal to Cage Warehouse Workers Criticized
“For states contemplating tax incentives for Amazon, the salient question is: what do you give a tax avoider who already has everything?,” Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at Institute on Taxation… -
media mention August 22, 2018 KPFA: US Treasury Sec Mnuchin Is Planning a $100 Billion Tax Cut for the Wealthy
This would very likely be the largest regulatory tax cut in history. While there’s an important place for Treasury regulations in clarifying Congressional intent, that’s not what this is… It’s… -
media mention July 30, 2018 The Tennessean: Where Are The Tax Cuts Going?
So where has the money gone? Many companies won’t say or are scant on specifics. Several publicly traded companies in Tennessee have issued press releases announcing bonuses or minimum wage increases, but… -
media mention July 23, 2018 Washington Post: IRS Outsources Debt Collection to Private Firms, and the Poor Feel the Sting
“The private firms appear, at least in some cases, to be ignoring this constraint,” said Matt Gardner, an analyst at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “When they… -
media mention July 11, 2018 New York Times: $111 Billion in Tax Cuts for the Top 1 Percent
Think of it this way: Income inequality has soared in recent decades, with the wealthy pulling away from everyone else and the upper-middle-class doing better than the working class or… -
media mention July 11, 2018 Yahoo! Finance: The Steep Cost of Tax Cuts Since 2001
Tax cuts enacted since the turn of the 21st century have added nearly $6 trillion to the deficit while disproportionately benefiting wealthy households, according to a new study from the… -
media mention June 29, 2018 American Prospect: The Two Biggest Lies in Donald Trump’s Tax Plan
Following is an excerpt from an essay in the American Prospect by ITEP Senior Fellow Matt Gardner: Despite a full-court charm offensive by the White House, its media surrogates, and… -
media mention June 20, 2018 Reuters: How U.S. Tax Reform Rewards Companies that Shift Profit to Tax Havens
“If the guardrails in the new territorial system were meant to prevent companies from avoiding all taxes, AbbVie’s (tax rate) is a pretty clear signal that these guardrails may not…