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 March 4, 2019 CBS News:Some of America’s Biggest Companies Paid Little to No Federal Income Tax in 2018
Its 10-K estimates its federal income tax liability at $-22.176 for 2018 — hence ITEP’s conclusion that it won’t pay the government any money for the year. “When I say… -
media mention March 1, 2019 Fortune: Why Amazon May Pay No Federal Income Taxes This Year
Amazon’s expected tax avoidance comes despite it nearly doubling its U.S. profits to $11.16 billion in 2018, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonpartisan tax… -
media mention February 22, 2019 Bloomberg: Amazon Doesn’t Plan to Pay the IRS Anything This Tax Season
The fact that Amazon can legally reduce its tax bill to nothing calls into question the effectiveness of the code, said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute of… -
media mention February 22, 2019 InsideSources: Amazon Paid Zero Corporate Taxes Last Year. Why Aren’t 2020 Democrats Talking About It?
“I blame Congress,” says Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy which first released the news of Amazon’s zero corporate tax bill. “Unless we… -
media mention February 21, 2019 Think Progress: U.S. Banks Raked in Record Profits Thanks to GOP Tax Bill
Because of the corporate tax cut, massive corporations like Amazon, which is valued at nearly $800 billion, will pay $0 in federal taxes this year. In fact, the company is expecting a federal refund of nearly $129 billion. This essentially puts Amazon at a federal income tax rate of -1 percent this year, after paying a federal rate of more than 11 percent from 2011 to 2016. This is the second year in a row that Amazon has not paid any federal taxes. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) suggests that this is due to a combination of the corporate tax cut and a loophole that allows corporations to avoid paying state and federal taxes on roughly half their income.
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media mention February 19, 2019 Axios: 1 Big Thing: Filthy Rich, Owing No Tax
Amazon is not a passive player in tax law, says ITEP’s Matthew Gardner, who researched and wrote the Amazon report. “Amazon in particular has shaped tax law in its own image. They made the laws by lobbying so persistently and effectively,” Gardner tells Axios.
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media mention February 18, 2019 Fox Business, Bulls & Bears: Amazon, Netflix Did Not Pay Any Federal Taxes in the US in 2018: Report
ITEP senior fellow Matthew Gardner discusses how big tech companies are taking advantage of tax loopholes in the U.S. Watch the video -
media mention February 16, 2019 Washington Post: Amazon Paid No Federal Taxes on $11.2 Billion in Profits Last Year
Amazon, the e-commerce giant helmed by the world’s richest man, paid no federal taxes on profit of $11.2 billion last year, according to an analysis of the company’s corporate filings by the… -
media mention February 15, 2019 CNN: Despite Record Profits, Amazon Didn’t Pay Any Federal Income Tax in 2017 or 2018. Here’s Why
“This is tax avoidance, not tax evasion. There’s no indication of any wrongdoing, except on the part of Congress,” said Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal think tank.
US tax code allows money-losing companies to reduce their future taxable income. -
media mention February 15, 2019 Salon.com: Activist Defeat of Amazon is a Win for Democracy Over Technology
However, Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told Salon it is impossible to know truly if New York missed out on an economic… -
media mention February 15, 2019 The Guardian: Amazon Made an $11.2bn Profit in 2018 – And Its Federal Tax Bill is $0
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.”
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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.