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.
