Washington Post: Fact-checking President Biden’s first news conference

Biden loves this statistic, but he usually is careful to say “federal taxes.” Simply saying “taxes” makes it wrong, because no matter what the federal tax liability, these companies certainly pay a variety of payroll, real estate and local or state taxes.

In a 2019 report, the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) concluded that 91 profitable companies in the Fortune 500 did not pay any federal income tax, largely as a result of the 2017 tax law, such as through deductions for investment that Trump promoted in the bill. The group said an additional 56 companies paid effective tax rates between zero and 5 percent on their 2018 income, for an average effective tax rate of 2.2 percent.

It’s worth noting that companies do not fully disclose their tax liability in their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, so this statistic is the product of research and analysis by the ITEP. But the group has done this for many years, and certainly the comparison of estimated taxes paid before and after the tax bill is relevant. Read more

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