Profits Without Taxation

In at least one of the past three years, 82 of the largest U.S. companies paid no federal income taxes, a report released this week. Some of the companies even got rebates.

From 2001 to 2003, 275 companies reported almost $1.1 trillion in pretax profits, according to the study by the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.And they should have paid about $370 billion in taxes during the period, according to the report.

They paid roughly half that. The companies, including North Carolina-based Wachovia and Bank of America, saved $175.2 billion because of tax breaks, according to the report by the nonprofit groups, which are funded by labor unions.

Corporate taxes have become a politically charged issue. Conservatives say that as the economy slumped earlier this decade, tax breaks were necessary to stimulate business spending.

More here.