543. Big Guys Who Don't Pay Taxes

BROWDERBOOKS

Sold 14 paperbacks of Fascinating New Yorkers and one of New Yorkers: A Feisty People last November and December, while advertising the first one in the New York Review of Books.  And two more of Fascinating New Yorkers in the first few days of January 2022 (maybe people using gift cards).  

Why then?  The holiday gift-giving season.  So it looks like my assumption was accurate: lots of my potential readers subscribe to NYRB.  But reader reviews on Amazon I'm not getting, and I could sure use some. 

My short story collection Wicked City is in the works, but my novel Panther Lady advances slowly -- I don't know why.

     BIG  GUYS  WHO  DON'T  PAY  TAXES

Yes, it's that time of year, when tax documents start clogging the mail, and tax accountants prepare for an avalanche of business.  

But not everyone pays taxes.  I'm not talking about the little guy who gets a tax break.  I mean corporations that rake in millions a year but quite legally don't pay taxes.

Thanks to an online study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, we know which of the big boys paid not a penny of income tax to the federal government in 2020 -- 55 corporations in all.  And most of them even got a tax rebate.  In other words, the government owed them money.  Among them:  

Consolidated Edison:  $1.2 billion in pre-tax income.  Plus a rebate of $2 million.

Fed Ex: $1.2 billion in pre-tax income.  Plus a rebate of $230 million.

Nike: $2.8 billion in pre-tax income.  Plus a rebate of $109 million.

And 52 others.  How do they do it?  

• A tax break that lets companies write off executive stock- option related expenses that go far beyond expenses they report to investors.
• The federal research and experimentation credit.
• Tax breaks for renewable energy.
• Depreciation tax breaks.

Maybe puzzling to the layman, but not to these companies' tax consultants.  Could these tax breaks be reduced or eliminated by the government?  Of course.  Will they be?  Not easily.  Such reforms don't interest many voters, concerned as they are with what affects them personally.  Tax reform for corporations just ain't sexy.

Source note:  This information comes from a report by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, dated April 2, 2021, by Matthew Gardner and Steve Wamhoff, available online.