Washington (September 27, 2024) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) joined Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Representative Greg Casar (D-Texas) and colleagues, in slamming 35 major companies that have been paying their executives more than they pay in federal income taxes. The lawmakers point to this as an additional reason why Congress must reform the tax code in 2025 to ensure that big corporations are paying what they owe.
“For decades, big businesses and the wealthy have skirted their responsibility to pay federal income taxes, leaving hardworking Americans to foot the bill,” wrote the lawmakers. “As Congress considers what to do when some provisions of the 2017 law expire next year, it is critical that we ensure that large, profitable businesses are paying their fair share.”
In the first five years following the $2 trillion Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) passed by Republicans and signed by President Trump in 2017, 35 companies raked in $277 billion in domestic profits. These companies then paid an average effective income tax rate of just 14.1 percent, almost a third less than the 21 percent statutory rate. Instead of these gains “trickling down” to workers, the corporations paid their executives $9.5 billion – more than they paid in federal income taxes. While executives were making $989,000 per year or more, an average raise of $50,000 per executive, 90 percent of workers saw no earnings increase.
The most egregious examples of these companies – and the ones the lawmakers wrote to – include: Tesla, TMobile, Netflix, AIG, Ford, NextEra, Darden, MetLife, Duke Energy, First Energy, DISH, Principal Financial, American Electrical Power, Kinder Morgan, Dominion, Oneok, Williams, Xcel Energy, NRG Energy, Salesforce, DTE Energy, Ameren, Sempra Energy, US Steel, Entergy, AmerisourceBergen, PPL, CMS Energy, Evergy, Voya Financial, Atmos Energy, Alliant Energy, Match Group, UGI, and Agilent Tech.
“Next year, Congress has an opportunity to take bigger strides in reforming our tax code – to raise the corporate rate, close loopholes, and hold big businesses to the same standards as everyday working Americans who pay their fair share,” concluded the lawmakers.
The letters were also signed by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Peter Welch (D-Vermont), as well as Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Eleanor Norton (D-D.C.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).
