26 tax-avoiding companies. They'll make your blood boil

<="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97hM_UP_Zu3O5qAlgeAb_myiObJ-JAqrmnsHUi2DiJmSkwbkGEPEdHfylwneVRJ6EFv-pc4Wm3vwsqP7163gIkpEroVjutuBqmbxRIddAEfeAV1b9HS-8jp4216fez6QbuUI4HurxSq2F/s1600/CorporateTaxAvoidance031813-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">

<="http://www.ctj.org/pdf/notax2012.pdf">Citizens for Tax Justice just published this list of big corporations that not only pay no federal income taxes but get money from the government. Heading the list is Pepco, the Washington, D.C.-based utility that is considered <="http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/07/pepco-most-hated-company-in-america-comes-under-fire-for-outages-77648.html">the most hated company in America.

Citizens for Tax Justice director Bob McIntyre said these big, profitable corporations are shifting their tax burden onto average Americans:

This isn’t fair to the rest of us, it makes no economic sense, and it’s part of the reason our government is running huge budget deficits.

According to the group,

Had these 30 companies paid the full 35 percent corporate tax rate over the 2008-11 period, they would have paid $78.3 billion more in federal income taxes. Or put another way, over the four years, the 30 companies received more than $78 billion in total tax subsidies. 

Wells Fargo alone garnered $21.6 billion in tax subsidies over the four years, followed by General Electric ($10.6 billion), Verizon ($7.7 billion), and Boeing ($6.0 billion).

Here's the list of the federal income tax rates (not) paid by 26 big companies.

Pepco Holdings   –39.5%
General Electric   –18.9%
PG&E Corp.   –18.4%
Wisconsin Energy   –13.2%
NiSource   –13.0%
Paccar   –13.0%
Integrys Energy Group   –11.6%
CenterPoint Energy   –11.3%
Atmos Energy   –9.6%
Tenet Healthcare   –8.2%
American Electric Power   –6.4%
Boeing   –5.5%
Ryder System   –5.4%
Con-way   –5.4%
Verizon Communications   –3.8%
Duke Energy   –3.5%
Interpublic Group   –2.5%
NextEra Energy   –2.0%
CMS Energy   –1.4%
Navistar International   –1.3%
Consolidated Edison   –1.3%
Mattel   –0.9%
El Paso   –0.9%
Baxter International   –0.6%
Apache   –0.3%
Corning   –0.2%

<="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/04/top-tax-dodging-companies-politicians">Mother Jones does a nice roundup of the political contributions that 10 of the companies made. It explains what we already know: why corporations pay so little in taxes. Check it out <="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/04/top-tax-dodging-companies-politicians">here.