These 26 Companies Pay No Federal Income Tax

[G_j]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/corporation-tax-rate_n_4855763.html

Many American companies are paying federal income taxes at far below the 35 percent rate often cited as the highest in the world. And many of the most profitable companies are effectively paying no taxes at all, according to a new report by the left-leaning Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), which advocates for tax fairness.

The think tank analyzed the 2008-2012 federal income tax filings of 288 Fortune 500 companies, focusing on companies that were "consistently profitable." CTJ found that 111 of the companies spent at least one year of the five paying zero or less in effective federal taxes. Twenty-six companies effectively paid "less than zero" taxes over that entire time because of massive tax breaks, according to the report.

[Trillo]

1. Taxes are for little people. NT

[riqster]

3. Kick

[bbgrunt]

2. nice chart

[Nye Bevan]

4. Either these numbers are wrong, or the folks at Verizon are pathological liars.

Last edited Tue Apr 15, 2014, 06:18 PM - Edit history (1)

It's tax season, and today Verizon filed its 10K -- available here -- which discloses audited information about the company's 2012 tax payments.

This information shows that Verizon is one of the largest taxpayers and investors in America.

Over the past three years, Verizon has paid more than $11.1 billion in taxes – including nearly $3.4 billion in 2012 alone. Verizon's 2010-2012 payments include more than $1.5 billion in income taxes, $4.0 billion in employment taxes, and $5.6 billion in property and other taxes.

In 2012, the net income attributable to Verizon totaled $875 million, and the company paid $351 million in income taxes while investing $16.2 billion in technology infrastructure.

While Verizon complies with all tax laws and pays its fair share of taxes, sometimes numbers are cherry-picked from the 10K to support claims that corporations avoid paying taxes. In Verizon's case, such claims are false and misleading.

For example, often Verizon's deferred tax liability is wrongly characterized as a loophole, even though deferred taxes do not reduce Verizon's tax liability. U.S. economic development policy spreads out, or defers, some federal tax payments over a longer period of time for companies that invest in America’s technology infrastructure. That’s because investment in infrastructure creates jobs.

In 2010-2012, while Verizon made more than $11.1 billion in tax payments, it also invested nearly $50 billion in technology infrastructure. This has created and sustained great U.S. jobs – both in and outside of Verizon – as the company has deployed innovative broadband technologies nationwide.

http://publicpolicy.verizon.com/blog/entry/verizons-2012-tax-payments-totaled-3.4-billion

[Travis_0004]

5. Verizon likely paid taxes

A 10k and taxes paid to the IRS will almost never match. There are different formulas used, different accounting methods, and different ways of doing things. Its 100% possible to report a loss to the IRS, and a profit to your shareholders, and both reports to be accurate.

I know GE had a story ran a few years ago claiming they got a 3.2 billion 'current tax benefit'. (this chart seems to put them at right around 3.2 billion for taxes received.) The story was pretty big, and people were making a big fuss about GE paying no taxes, but the problem was, it was never true. 'Current tax benefit' has nothing to do with receiving taxes from the IRS. Not only is it not related, but I imagine it would be impossible to know how much GE or any company pays the IRS. Its not public information.