Findings in the report include:
The average effective tax rate for all 280 companies, all of which were in the Fortune 500, in the study over the three year period was 18.5 percent; for the period 2009-2010 it was 17.3 percent, less than half the statutory rate of 35 percent.
78 of the companies enjoyed at least one year in which their federal income tax was zero or less.
30 companies enjoyed a negative income tax rate over the entire three year period on their combined pre-tax profits of $160 billion.
Total tax subsidies given to all 280 profitable corporations amounted to $222.7 billion from 2008-2010.
Wells Fargo tops the list of 280 U.S. corporations receiving the most in tax subsidies, getting nearly $18 billion in tax breaks from the U.S. treasury in the last three years.
Pepco Holdings, an energy company, had the lowest effective tax rate of all the companies in the study, at negative 57.6 percent over the three year period.
Some companies within sectors fare worse than others. For example, the report finds that FedEx paid a 0.9 percent tax rate over the three year period while its competitor, UPS, paid a 24.1 percent rate.
While retailers and wholesalers in the study generally pay average effective tax rates of about 30 percent, Amazon.com paid a rate of only 7.9 percent on its $1.8 billion in profits from 2008-2010.
Financial services received the largest share (16.8 percent) of all federal tax subsidies over the last three years. More than half of federal corporate tax subsidies for companies in the study went to four industries: financial services, utilities, telecommunications, and oil, gas & pipelines.
The top ten defense contractors saw their combined tax rate decline from 19.3 percent in 2008 to a mere 10.6 percent rate in 2010.
U.S. corporations with significant (ten percent or more of their total worldwide profits) foreign profits paid tax rates to foreign countries that were almost a third higher than they paid to the IRS on their domestic profits.
The report by the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy makes it clear that the big Fortune 500 C-corporations are not being over taxed.
Rightardia can not think of one good reason why the US banking or financial sector should be subsidized by the federal government.
Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), founded in 1979, is a 501 (c)(4) public interest research and
advocacy organization focusing on federal, state and local tax policies and their impact upon
our nation (www.ctj.org).
Founded in 1980, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, non-partisan research organization, based in Washington, DC, that focuses on federal
and state tax policy.
ITEP's mission is to inform policymakers and the public of the effects of
current and proposed tax policies on tax fairness, government budgets, and sound economic
policy (www.itepnet.org)
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