By Anna Peel. Originally published at ValueWalk.
From Charter Communications to Nike, these are the companies that avoided paying taxes in 2020
New research from Tipalti has revealed the companies across the USA which paid $0 in federal taxes in 2020 despite a huge pre-tax income and also the most common tax penalties for corporations.
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The analysis showed that Charter Communications is the company with the biggest pre-tax income of almost $3.7 billion, yet paid $0 in federal taxes in 2020.
Meanwhile failure to pay is the most common penalty type for corporations, with over half a billion dollars in failure to pay penalties.
Corporations With Biggest Pre-tax Income That Paid $0 In Taxes
| Rank | Company | Industry | Pre-tax income | Current federal income tax (including tax rebates) | Effective tax rate |
| 1 | Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) | Telecommunications | $3.7bn | -$7m | -0.20% |
| 2 | Nike (NYSE:NKE) | Miscellaneous manufacturing | $2.9bn | -$109m | -3.80% |
| 3 | Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) | Computers, office equip, software, data | $2.6bn | -$12m | -0.50% |
| 4 | DISH Network (NASDAQ:DISH) | Telecommunications | $2.5bn | -$231m | -9.10% |
| 5 | American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) | Utilities, gas and electric | $2.2bn | -$138m | -6.40% |
| 6 | Danaher (NYSE:DHR) | Miscellaneous manufacturing | $1.6bn | -$321m | -20.30% |
| 7 | DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE) | Utilities, gas and electric | $1.5bn | -$247m | -16.10% |
| 8 | Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) | Utilities, gas and electric | $1.5bn | -$13m | -0.90% |
| 9 | Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED) | Utilities, gas and electric | $1.2bn | -$2m | -0.20% |
| 10 | Nucor (NYSE:NUE) | Metals & metal products | $1.2bn | -$177m | -14.50% |
- The research showed that the telecommunications company, Charter Communications, is the company which paid $0 in taxes in 2020 and had the highest pre-tax income of nearly $3.7 billion.
- Sports apparel company Nike ranked second, with a pre-tax income of $2.9bn, yet paid zero in taxes in 2020 and actually received a tax rebate of $109m.
Most Common Penalty Types For Corporations
| Rank | Type of penalty | Volume | Amount |
| 1 | Failure to pay | 286,725 | $589,311,000 |
| 2 | Estimated tax | 235,454 | $395,982,000 |
| 3 | Delinquency | 51,682 | $356,495,000 |
| 4 | Accuracy | 2,423 | $53,964,000 |
| 5 | Bad check | 11,111 | $16,909,000 |
| 6 | Fraud | 59 | $8,932,000 |
| 7 | Other | 57 | $7,910,000 |
| Total | 587,511 | $1,429,503,000 |
- In terms of the most common types of tax offences for corporations, failure to pay is the most frequent one that’s issued, with 286,725 penalties issued, totalling $589 million.
- When it comes to corporations, only 59 fraud penalties have been issued, which have only equated to fines of $7.9 million in total
Further Findings
- Failure to pay is also the most common tax offence for individuals and trusts, with over 19 million penalties issued, totalling $7.1 billion collected.
- Ireland is the country which lost the most money as a result of tax offences in 2020, with 22.26% of their total tax revenue collected lost because of tax abuse.
- Former US attorney Paul Daugerdas is guilty of what has been dubbed the biggest criminal tax fraud in history, racking up a tax debt of $1.6bn from his fraudulent tax shelters.
Updated on
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