Companies and Brands

These 55 Huge American Companies Paid Zero Federal Taxes

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: April 3, 2021 7:43 am

The Biden Administration is about to be locked in a battle with big business over corporate taxes. He wants to increase them to help fund his infrastructure bill, which has an estimated price tag of $1.9 trillion. One part of his plan would increase corporate taxes from 21% to 28%.

Among the first reactions across America’s biggest companies and their lobbying groups is that the money that would go to new taxes should go to investment in corporate expansion, which in turn drives jobs. To extend that argument, more jobs mean more personal tax income for the federal government. The big business argument is partly, “don’t tax us, tax the incomes of the people we will add in the future”.

Activists groups argue that a huge portion of corporate profits does not go to investment at all. Much of the money finds its way to dividends and share buybacks which improve the returns of investors. And, another piece of the profits goes to pay senior corporate managements tens of millions of dollars.

Some of America’s largest companies did not pay corporate federal taxes at all in 2020. The companies often say this is for good reason. They have lost money or invested all of their profits. Non-profit ITEP takes issue with that and offers a report each year. For this year, it is entitled “55 Corporations Paid $0 in Federal Taxes on 2020 Profits.” Among the points of the analysis is that the corporations on the list brought in $40.5 billion last year, so losses were not the issue driving whether these companies made federal income tax payments.

The ITEP says that there are specific reasons these 55 companies paid no taxes. “Their total corporate tax breaks for 2020, including $8.5 billion in tax avoidance and $3.5 billion in rebates, comes to $12 billion.”  This makes the effective federal tax rate for these companies zero, or even negative. The counter-argument from many is that they pay huge payroll taxes, and often pay local taxes as well.

Some of America’s best-known companies are on this list. They include FedEx, Nike, Dish, and Charter Communications. The list is dominated by tech, financial services, and utilities.

No matter which side of the debate people are on, these 55 companies paid no federal corporate taxes last year.

Company                           Industry

Advanced Micro Devices    Computers
Akamai Technologies          Computers
Albemarle                            Chemicals
American Electric Power      Utilities
Archer Daniels Midland       Food & beverages
Ball                                       Manufacturing
Booz Allen Hamilton           Computers
Cabot                                  Oil
Charter Communications   Telecommunications
CMS                                    Energy Utilities
Community Health Sys       Health care
Consolidated Edison           Utilities
Danaher                              Manufacturing
Dexcom                               Pharmaceuticals
Dish Network                      Telecommunications
DTE Energy                          Utilities
Duke Energy                        Utilities
Ecolab                                  Chemicals
Evergy                                  Utilities
FedEx                                   Services
FirstEnergy                           Utilities
Fiserv                                    Financial
Hologic                                 Health care
Howmet Aerospace              Manufacturing
HP                                        Computers
Interpublic Group                Services
Jacobs Engineering              Engineering
Kansas City Southern            Transportation
Kinder Morgan                      Oil
Lincoln National                   Financial
Michaels                               Retail
Mohawk Industries              Manufacturing
Nike                                     Manufacturing
Nucor                                  Metals
Owens & Minor                   Retail
Penske Automotive             Motor vehicles
PPL                                       Utilities
Qurate Retail Group             Internet
Salesforce.com                    Computers
Sanmina-SCI                        Computers
Seaboard                              Food & beverages
Sealed Air                             Manufacturing
Telephone & Data Sys         Telecommunications
Textron                                Aerospace
Treehouse Foods Food,       Beverages
Tutor Perini                          Engineering
Tyler Technologies               Computers
UGI Utilities,                        Gas and electric
Unum Group                       Financial
Verisign                               Computers
Voya Financial                     Financial
Westlake Chemical              Chemicals
Williams                               Oil
Xcel Energy                          Utilities
Xilinx                                    Computers

Click here to read These Are The American Companies With The Worst Reputations.