The news is often filled with bad stories, so how about a good one? We’ve already heard that there are big profitable corporations that pay no tax, but did you know that some companies generously share their profits with the government out of the goodness of their corporate hearts? Since 2017, when Congress lowered the statutory corporate tax rate to 21%, VF Corp. (the maker of brands such as North Face and Vans) had a domestic effective tax rate of 174%. In other words, it expensed 174% of pre-tax domestic profit in U.S. taxes. Cisco and Western Digital had effective tax rates of 67% and 236%, respectively. The corporate generosity posterchild, Merck, had a rate of 303%. Sensing our country’s deep budget problems, these companies dug deep and gave until it hurt. We should move them to the top of the world’s most admired companies.
Read the rest at Fortune.
