The Boston Globe: Big corporations avoid state taxes, study says
media mentionBy Beth Healy | Globe Staff
December 08, 2011
Sixty-eight out of 265 Fortune 500 companies across the country paid no state corporate income taxes in at least one of the last three years, according to a new report.
The companies included in the study – including EMC Corp. and Raytheon Co. of Massachusetts – earned a combined $1.33 trillion in profits over the last three tax years and managed to shelter at least half of their profits from state taxes, according to Matthew Gardner, executive director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and a coauthor of the report.
The study was released yesterday by the institute, a Washington nonprofit that advocates on behalf of consumers in tax matters, and the Boston-based Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, also a nonprofit advocacy group.
According to the study, EMC, the Hopkinton computer storage giant, paid $7 million in state taxes across the country, or a rate that averaged 0.3 percent, from 2008 through 2010. That’s well below the 8.25 percent corporate tax rate in Massachusetts and the average corporate tax rate for states of 6.2 percent, according to the study.
Raytheon, the Lexington defense contractor, had a three-year rate of 2.3 percent, according the report. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., a Waltham maker of analytical instruments and lab equipment, paid a rate of about 4.4 percent over the three years.
Raytheon spokesman Jon Kasle said the company “fulfills its tax obligations in compliance with tax laws and pays its taxes when they are due. This study is based on select pieces of data over a fixed period and is lacking in comprehensive analysis.’’
MassPIRG said the study relied on regulatory filings by the publicly traded companies. EMC and Thermo Fisher declined to comment.
Corporate tax rates are falling in many states, as local governments try to attract and keep businesses and jobs. The Massachusetts corporate tax rate is scheduled to drop to 8.0 percent on Jan. 1. It’s been coming down from 9.5 percent in 2009.
The personal tax rate in Massachusetts is 5.3 percent.
Bob Bliss, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue said the state took in $2.28 billion in corporate and business taxes in fiscal 2011. That marked a 5.1 percent increase from 2010.