Research results of US research institute
At least 55 large corporations suffered federal corporate tax damage last year
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It turns out that many of the large U.S. companies that make huge incomes have paid no federal corporate tax.
The New York Times (NYT) quoted a report from the Institute for Tax Economy Policy on the 2nd (local time) and reported that at least 55 of the large US companies did not pay federal corporate income tax at all last year, despite billions of dollars in revenue.
A study of the 500 companies selected by the US economic journal Pocheon revealed that these companies used various legal deductions or exemptions specified in the tax law.
Salesforce, a renowned software company, and Conedison, a large power company, were listed in the report last year as companies that paid no taxes.
In particular, 26 companies, including FedEx, Nike, and Duke Energy, did not pay federal corporate income tax for the past three years as well as last year, or received millions of dollars in tax refunds, the institute pointed out.
This is even more shocking considering the fact that these companies have made a total of 77 billion dollars (about 87 trillion won) in total revenue over three years.
Conglomerates were able to avoid taxes while making a lot of money because of the tax cuts of the former administration of Donald Trump and the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19).
The revised tax law, passed by former President Trump and the Republican Party in 2017, allowed the corporate tax rate to be lowered from 35% to 21%, as well as the depreciation of investments in new equipment and machinery.
Accordingly, DTE Energy, a Detroit-based utility company, has not paid a federal income tax for three years for modernizing its old infrastructure and large-scale investments in new solar and wind power technologies.
In the case of Duke Energy, it was able to postpone $9 billion in federal taxes by using provisions to encourage investment in renewable energy.
In addition, the $2.2 trillion dollar economic stimulus package law introduced at the beginning of the Corona 19 pandemic last year, allowing the profits earned in the previous few years to be offset by losses incurred in 2020, also helped conglomerates’reduce taxes’. FedEx is one of the companies that used this provision to cut taxes, according to NYT.
This report comes out and draws more attention shortly after the Joe Biden administration declared that it would raise the corporate tax to 28% and create a kind of’minimum tax’ system. President Biden, who announced an investment plan for the construction of a super-large infrastructure worth $2 trillion (about KRW 2260 trillion), raised the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% to raise funds, with an annual income of $400,000 (about KRW 450 million). ) We are considering raising the income tax rate for high income earners above 37% from 37% to 39.6%.
Proponents are welcoming the Biden administration’s tax reform bill, saying it will tax businesses and high-income people fairly, but the Republican Party is saying its opposite.
/ Reporter Kihyuk Kim [email protected]
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