WFAE: Duke Energy Among 55 Companies That Paid No U.S. Taxes Last Year

An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive think tank, finds that Duke and other large companies used lower tax rates and tax incentives to eliminate their federal liability. In Duke’s case, those measures turned what could have been a $176 million income tax bill into a tax credit.

When companies don’t pay taxes, it leaves a gap in federal revenues, said the institute’s Matthew Gardner, who co-authored the report with Steve Wamhoff.

“When those revenues aren’t there because companies are avoiding tax, despite being profitable, that money has to come from somewhere else,” Gardner said. “It could come from hiking taxes on everybody else. More probable in the current climate, is that it’ll come from mortgaging our future (by) passing these costs on to the next generation, or maybe cutting spending-side initiatives.” Read more

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