WalletHub, a personal finance social network, has released an analysis of the rates at which S&P 100 companies are taxed at the state, federal and international levels and found they were on average paying more in taxes last year than in 2012, although some are still paying extremely low rates.
The new report, based on tax data from 2013 annual reports, found that the overall tax rate that S&P 100 companies pay has increased by 5.3 percent since 2012. The main contributor to the increase was the state tax rate, which has risen 24 percent since 2012.
S&P 100 companies paid approximately 22 percent lower rates on international taxes than U.S. taxes last year, according to WalletHub’s research.
According to WalletHub, a number of technology companies, including Apple, eBay and Facebook, are still paying up to 70 percent lower rates abroad, continuing the trend from the prior year.
Only one S&P 100 company paid a negative overall tax rate and was therefore due a tax refund, Ford Motor Co., according to the study. This is a large decrease from the previous year, when six S&P 100 companies received tax refunds. Among the remaining companies that owe taxes, Amgen (3.5 percent), AIG (3.8 percent), General Electric (4.2 percent) and Abbott Laboratories (5.5 percent) paid the lowest rates.
The average S&P 100 company pays a 15 percent higher tax rate than the top 3 percent of consumers, according to WalletHub.
It is important to note, however, that the tax returns of companies are generally not available to researchers, and they generally rely on the publicly available financial reports that they file with regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. WalletHub said its data is based on the companies’ 2013 annual reports. The tax figures cited in those reports may not match the actual corporate tax returns that are filed with the Internal Revenue Service, which are confidential.
For WalletHub’s complete report,
