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September 27, 2004

How would you like to pay no federal income taxes, but still get a huge refund from Uncle Sam at the end of the year? If you were one of Americas giant corporations, your wish might come true.

Nearly one-third of the nations largest and most profitable corporations paid no federal income tax between 2001 and 2003 yet still received billions of dollars in tax rebates, according to a new study.

Corporate Income Taxes in the Bush Years, (http://www.ctj.org/corpfed04an.pdf) released September 22 by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, finds 82 of 275 companies CTJ examined enjoyed at least one year in 2001-2003 in which they paid no federal income taxes yet received billions of dollars in outright tax rebates. In 2003 alone, 46 of the companies paid no federal income taxes and in some cases, received tax rebates.

The companies, all on the Fortune 500 list, include 29 firms that bargain with the IBEW, including General Electric, which topped the list of corporate tax break beneficiaries with $9.5 billion over the three years.

Other companies on the list, under contract with the IBEW, include: Pepco Holdings, ITT Industries, Unisys, NCR, Computer Sciences, Saks, CenterPoint Energy, AT&T, CSX, FPL Group, Time Warner, KeySpan, Danaher, Boeing, Entergy, Wesco International, Graybar Electric, Consolidated Edison, Verizon, Rockwell Automation, SBC Communications, Eaton, Walt Disney, United Technologies, Dominion Resources, Engelhard, SPX and Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

Corporate Taxes in the Bush Years compares the profits of the corporations examined with their tax savings and the effect on the federal treasury.

The report states: " Corporate income taxes in fiscal 2002 and 2003 fell to their lowest sustained share of the economy since World War II. (Only a single year during the early Reagan administration was lower.) From 2001 to 2003, the Commerce Department reports that pretax corporate profits grew by 26 percent. But over that same period, corporate income tax payments to the federal government fell by 21 percent."

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