this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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Trump gave top US firms staggering tax cuts, with some paying $0 or less – report (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
48 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Among lowest taxpayers were companies whose CEOs have become high-profile advocates for corporate social responsibility

Some of the US’s most profitable corporations, including General Motors, Citigroup and Netflix, have slashed their tax bills in the years since the passage of the Trump tax cuts, with nearly a quarter paying rates in the single digits and 23 paying nothing, a report has found.

The 2017 law cut the top corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. But the new assessment of corporate tax avoidance, published on Thursday by the non-profit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (Itep), found that during the first five years the law was in effect, many profitable public companies in the US paid a far lower rate in practice.

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 5 months ago (3 children)

In 2020, Marc Benioff, the co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, declared to the New York Times that “it’s time for a new kind of capitalism: stakeholder capitalism, which recognizes that our companies have a responsibility to all our stakeholders”.

And how is our current system not already an extreme version of this???

[–] [email protected] 42 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Shareholders aren't the same as stakeholders. Shareholders are always stakeholders, but stakeholders aren't always share holders.

Stakeholders are people with any kind of interest in the company doing well, this includes people like employees, suppliers, and customers. Basically anyone that benefits from a business doing well.

I feel like he might be arguing for the kind of change that the current "anything to keep the stock price going up so the shareholders stay happy" model desperately needs.

Probably a bunch of lipservice to keep shareholders happy by addressing risk that they all foresee....namely the shifting temperament towards large corporations by the people who's value is being stolen for shareholders gains.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Soundbites over substance is the name of the corporate PR game.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

It's so nuts...

Speaking to shareholders, about 'shifting' the model, in an open and public medium.

He's literally talking to people who want their money to grow, about changing how the money grows....if you read between the lines it's basically

"Hey we know this is a growing concern, here in the c-suite we see it coming too. Rest assured, we're going to pander to public sentiment so our shareholder profits remain intact. Our hope is that in doing so we attract more talent to exploit thereby maintaining that upward trajectory we all know and love.

Remember 'unlimited PTO'? Yeah, we'll give these guys the same treatment."

But because these statements are public as are the financials etc, they won't just outright say it. I'll bet you quarterly and annual filings have the same type of stuff in the section disclosing current and foreseeable risks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Probably a bunch of lipservice to keep shareholders happy by addressing risk that they all foresee....namely the shifting temperament towards large corporations by the people who's value is being stolen for shareholders gains.

I'd say you're probably right about that, especially considering that's the CEO who's building a doomsday bunker with a flammable moat, right next to zuck in Hawaii.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

The modern CEO has been bred to appease the shareholders, but not any shareholders...just the ones with enough skin in the game and enough influence/power to destroy lives, CEOs included.

The game is fully rigged, the only ones who have any real free will are the hedgefunds and investment houses. Keep those entities happy and your little company thrives.

As a CEO, you're just the colonial general sitting in the big house exploiting a workforce and shipping the value/profits back to the homeland.

Just look at Bezos...ex hedgefund guy builds digital platform to buy/sell books, and then AWS happens, and then literally thousands of brick and mortar stores close down giving amazon a monopoly in lots of regions. Visionary entrepreneur my ass...modern day colonizer and profiteer is closer to the truth.

Bezos will be a trillionair in this decade, his shareholders basically have a infinite money supply, and like Walmart; Amazon employees are getting their hands chopped off because they didn't produce enough rubber for the King/Queen/HFT-Firm

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Stakeholders are people with any kind of interest in the company doing well

Corporate social responsibility as a concept is even broader than that -- it's not just anyone who has interest in the company doing well, but broad consideration of anyone impacted by the decisions of the company.

A company might be able to save operational costs by dumping toxic sludge in a river, but within a CSR framework, people living downstream would be considered stakeholders and the potential negative impact of the decision on those people is supposed to be taken into account when decisions are made. The corporation is supposed to have a responsibility to do right by anyone impacted by their actions wherever possible.

At least that's the theory. It shouldn't be surprising that the language of CSR gets pretty commonly coopted by companies looking to whitewash what they're actually doing.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Because it will never be enough

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The only thing they want is to extract all value that could possibly exist, and horde it all for themselves.

It's a perfectly reasonable, totally-not-insane-whatsoever, way to conduct oneself on the only spaceship hospitable to human life, in a mostly-empty universe of extremely limited resources.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

These clowns are totally delusional!

[–] [email protected] 52 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

How much the top 25 companies ~~saved in taxes~~ stiffed the public funds

Bank of America $23.89 billion

AT&T $17.68 billion

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. $16.69 billion

Verizon Communications $13.68 billion

Apple $9.26 billion

General Motors $6.52 billion

Citigroup $5.88 billion

Walt Disney $5.09 billion

NextEra Energy $4.57 billion

Duke Energy $4.51 billion

Comcast $4.36 billion

Walmart $4.04 billion

T-Mobile US $3.84 billion

Southern $3.41 billion

United Parcel Service $3.32 billion

Nike $3.12 billion

PNC Financial Services Group $3.08 billion

Netflix $2.98 billion

Texas Instruments $2.92 billion

Charter Communications $2.75 billion

Kinder Morgan $2.75 billion

FedEx $2.66 billion

Dominion Energy $2.62 billion

DISH Network $2.60 billion

Principal Financial $2.47 billion

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My rough estimate is $120B. How far off am I?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

My guess is $154B, haven't counted yet.

Edit: real total $154.69! Damn close

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Is that 154.69! Factorial?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Might as well be tbh

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago

RIP in peace haha

[–] [email protected] 42 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

23 corporations, including T-Mobile US and Xcel Energy, paid zero (or less) federal income tax over the five-year period

So... Does that mean they paid zero taxes and got a return? How the hell do you pay less than zero dollars in taxes?

[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago

Yep, you got it. Tax credits for things like RnD and green initiatives, depreciation of assets like buildings and machinery , and the evergreen strategy of exploiting tax loop holes

[–] Grumpy 15 points 5 months ago

Unfortunately many large corporations actually get money from the gov rather than pay. Negative tax is a real thing and only takes a quick search to find corps that's very profitable actually getting paid billions by the government.

Like these companies got money from gov while being profitable. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/03/07/27-giant-profitable-companies-paid-no-taxes/81399094/

It fluctuates quite a bit from year to year as grants and various benefits change every year.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The industries enjoying the lowest five-year effective tax rates were utilities (negative 0.1 percent); oil, gas, and pipelines (2.0 percent); motor vehicles (3.2 percent); and telecommunications (7.7 percent).

Most of which are actively destroying the earth. Probably a coincidence.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I sure am glad we gave those companies tons of taxpayer money through the infrastructure and climate bills, I'm sure they will only use those funds to make the country a better place for all of us to live /s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Just the lobbyists that spent the most money, and have some of the most money to spend. Pure coincidence I'm sure. Time for legislators to start wearing garb like racecar drivers where you can see who paid them while they vote. Heh can only imagine how busy Trump's would be, not like he'd follow any rule in case it messed up his makeup. Though not like Trump did much himself, was bought for in the house and Senate anyways, he'll still take credit for it all of course.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I knew this was happening and has been forrrrrever but it still makes me angry every time it comes up

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

Because it keeps getting more severe, and more blatant.

"Stakeholder Capitalism”?

It's not enough that they take everything and ruin it, they have to bullshit us overtly so we thank them for it

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago

Or less... Or less?! So we should pay them?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago

Despite their record profits they see fit to drive inflation up and charge customers more.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (2 children)

That cannot be right, because we still had to bail them out in 2020. Surely Repubs wouldn't give out massive tax cuts to businesses and then also massive handouts to businesses when they are the party of self-sufficiency and accountability? If both those things were true, one must conclude that Repubs are all deceitful and without integrity.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

You figured out the grift: rob the tax coffers, while paying as little as possible yourself. It's always been the Republican plan, kicked into full gear by Reagan. And the way they keep getting away with it is to keep the peasants fighting amongst themselves over social issues: race, sexuality, religion, etc. They're thieves, always have been.

And they're winning. The same strategy has been successful since the beginning of recorded history.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Self-sufficiency for thee.

Gov't monies for me.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Remember this was that exciting trump-regime kerfuffle when the tax bill was absolutely the only idea they had (no new medicare, no infrastructure bill, they were a hot mess with no ideas and less sense).

They all heroically came together to shove a huge profit grab through and they didn't even do that right - the . . . rules judge (f**kme I can't think of the title of that role and web searching was zero help. I did find this contemporary recap from CNN that is absolutely a perfect time-capsule of the idiocy and horifying betrayal the corporate news became for trump)

Anyway, they had faxed in hundreds of hand-written items in the margins of the bill to create a superclusterfuck of legislative assault and even the senate rules person had to stiff arm them for a few hours in the middle of the night lest they accidentally give AirForce One to Papa John or some equally fucked up thing.

Only one Republican dissented, Bob Corker, and he did the best that a newly-pithed republican could do at the time, which was reitre and say trump was a loser - but, of course, do absolutely nothing to stop him.

they could have maintained or even increased the effective rate paid by corporations by shutting down special breaks and loopholes in the corporate income tax. But from the very beginning of the debate over the 2017 legislation, it was clear their goal was to allow corporations to contribute less to the public investments and the society that makes their profits possible.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Is Senate Parliamentarian the title you're looking for?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Yes! Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Air Force One accidentally being bequeathed to Papa John is so damn hilarious I kinda wish it would happen

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

OR LESS

[–] zaph 6 points 5 months ago

This shit is why I don't pay taxes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Direct link to the report

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/52d97c57-f213-4761-9841-93f2ef165086.jpeg

Good to see ol big ed is doing well for himself.