US Corporations Pay Their Lowest Share Of Fed Tax Revenues In Almost 60 Years

BY Chris Walker May 21, 2019

Data from the Internal Revenue Service demonstrates that corporations are paying their smallest share of federal income tax revenues to the government since 1960.

NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 14: Activists and community members who opposed Amazon’s plan to move into Queens rally in celebration of Amazon’s decision to pull out of the deal, in the Long Island City neighborhood, February 14, 2019 in the Queens borough of New York City. Amazon said on Thursday that they are cancelling plans to build a corporate headquarters in Long Island City, Queens after coming under harsh opposition from some local lawmakers and residents. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Around $3.5 trillion of federal income tax dollars were collected by the IRS in 2018, according to a report from CBS News on Tuesday.

Of that amount, corporations paid around 7.8 percent of the total revenues collected. That number is down from the year before, when corporations paid close to 10 percent of all IRS income tax revenues collected.

After tax refunds are calculated into the mix, the share of IRS revenues by businesses goes even lower, to around 6.8 percent.

Meanwhile, individual income tax returns collectively made up around 57 percent of all revenues collected by the IRS. That number is higher than the 2017 rate, which was 54 percent at the time.

The overall changes are huge when you consider where things stood in 1960. At that moment in history, corporate income taxes made up around a quarter of all revenues collected by the IRS. Individuals’ collective income taxes made up just under half of the total.

60 of America's biggest companies paid no federal income tax in 2018 https://t.co/9yhcp9UfKP pic.twitter.com/v4Mqe8O92C

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 13, 2019

These latest numbers highlight some of the effects of the tax cuts that were passed into law in late 2017 by Republicans in Congress and President Donald Trump. Those cuts largely benefited corporations, and resulted in many big businesses paying much less than they did the year prior to them being enacted.

Indeed, as previous reporting from HillReporter.com pointed out, at least 60 corporations owed nothing in federal taxes in 2018. That number is twice as many as how many owed zero in taxes from 2017.