Profitable companies, no taxes: Here's how they did it

Companies took advantage of array of tax loopholes and aggressive strategies

Complaining that the US has one of the world’s highest corporate tax levels, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have repeatedly vowed to shrink it. Yet if the level is so high, why have so many companies’ income tax bills added up to zero? 

That’s what a new analysis of 258 profitable Fortune 500 companies that earned more than $3.8 trillion in profits showed. Tax reformers have long argued that the nominal 35 per cent federal rate on corporate profits more often than not functions like a strike-through price - an artificially inflated number that sounds high but rarely applies. 

Thanks to a variety of loopholes and tax-dodging methods, those 258 corporations paid an average rate of 21.2 per cent, according to a report by Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. 

Here is a snapshot: