Left-leaning watchdog: Companies avoiding taxes spent millions on lobbying

Fifty-five companies that didn’t pay any corporate income tax in 2020 shelled out $408 million on lobbying over the past six years, according to a new report from left-leaning watchdog group Public Citizen.

The report said corporations saved $12 billion in taxes through tax avoidance and rebates, far less than they spent on lobbying lawmakers and government officials. FedEx, Charter Communications, American Electric Power and Duke Energy were the top lobbying spenders among firms that effectively avoided federal taxes, according to Public Citizen.

“Duke Energy could use the $280 million rebate from the federal government to fund its lobbying spending for the next half-century,” said Public Citizen research director Mike Tanglis. “Using Uncle Sam’s money to lobby against paying taxes is the perfect embodiment of how Washington works.”

Public Citizen’s report cites an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which found that 55 U.S. companies paid no federal income tax on more than $40 billion in profits last year. Many of those companies lobbied for tax legislation signed into law by former President Trump in 2017 that created new corporate tax breaks.

Citing data from OpenSecrets.org, the report also found the companies accounted for $42 million in federal campaign contributions since the 2016 election cycle. That figure includes employee and PAC donations. Twenty of the top 25 recipients of those donations were Republicans who backed the 2017 tax cuts.

Charter Communications told The Hill its 2020 tax burden was decreased due to deferments and investments in technology and infrastructure. Duke Energy and American Electric Power, both utilities, each said they used tax programs to invest in renewable energy, and that tax savings are passed on to their customers.

FedEx told The Hill it paid nearly $9 billion in federal, state and local taxes between 2016 and 2020.

President Biden has proposed tax increases on corporations to pay for trillions in new infrastructure spending. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is leading an international effort to implement a 15 percent global minimum tax on corporations. Those proposals are fiercely opposed by lobbying groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable.

Congressional Democrats have jumped on the issue of tax avoidance after ProPublica reported this week that the nation’s wealthiest billionaires paid little to no federal income taxes in recent years.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said at a hearing Tuesday that the ProPublica report found “the country’s wealthiest, who profited immensely during the pandemic, have not been paying their fair share.”

Updated at 5:14 p.m.