Some of America’s largest companies, including Tesla, T-Mobile and Netflix, were at the center of a new report that reveals how much the companies paid in federal income taxes, compared to how much they made in profit and how much they paid in their maximums. senior executives.
The Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness released a report Wednesday highlighting “a significant number” of large U.S. companies, 35 in total, that paid their top five executives more than they paid in federal corporate taxes. income between 2018 and 2022.
Elon Musk’s Tesla was No. 1 on the list. The company paid its top five executives $2.5 billion over five years, generating U.S. profits of $4.4 billion.
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk speaks to the media next to his Model S during a press conference in Hong Kong. 25JAN16 SCMP/ Nora Tam (Photo by Nora Tam/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk has a net worth of about $184 billion, of which about $69.7 billion is based on the value of his Tesla shares. Musk is one of the three richest people in the world.
The report points out that despite Tesla’s record profits, the company “has never paid a dime in federal income taxes.” One potential cause of this trend, according to the report, could be that Tesla reported losses before it became profitable.
“These loss carryovers mitigate the often boom-bust nature of corporate finances,” the report said.
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T-Mobile was second on the list, with a profit of $17.9 billion in the United States over five years and zero net federal income taxes. According to the report, the top five executives received $675 million from 2018-2022, while CEO and President Mike Sievert received $158 million of the total.
There are a number of tax avoidance, or tax minimization, strategies mentioned in the report, including moving American profits to offshore tax havens or using tax deductions on stock options.
The report does not take into account state, local or payroll taxes.
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