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Thursday February 25, 2010

Corporate Taxes: Who Pays the Least


Congress is currently considering lowering the 35% federal tax rate. But a lot of companies don't need help from Washington, they've been finding legal ways to shrink their tax bill for years. We asked the analysts at Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) to cull the cash taxes (ie. actual checks) that the companies of the S&P 500 paid to the tax collector over the past five years and then look at how that compares to their earnings before income taxes. Here's a list of the 100 companies that sent in the smallest checks


Click column heading once to reorder from highest to lowest. Click twice to reorder from lowest to highest.
Rank
based on
5-year
average
Name
5-Year
Average
(in %)
Cash Taxes
Paid
(latest year, $ millions)
Effective
Tax Rate (%)
Sector
1 CMS ENERGY  0.0 0.0 0.0 Utilities
2 CHESAPEAKE ENERGY  0.3 0.3 38.5 Energy
3 BOEING  0.7 28.0 30.9 Industrials
4 BROADCOM  1.1 3.9 0.0 Information Technology
5 FPL GROUP  1.2 30.0 23.7 Utilities
6 ALLEGHENY ENERGY  1.3 3.2 35.1 Utilities
7 CITIZENS COMMUNICATIONS  1.6 5.4 35.0 Telecommunication Services
8 AMERICAN CAPITAL STRATEGIES  1.8 21.0 1.2 Financials
9 AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES  1.9 3.5 41.7 Information Technology
10 DIRECTV GROUP  2.0 30.3 37.7 Consumer Discretionary
11 NVIDIA  2.2 26.6 9.4 Information Technology
12 XCEL ENERGY  2.3 -13.3 24.2 Utilities
13 AMAZON.COM  2.8 15.0 49.6 Consumer Discretionary
14 YAHOO!  2.9 66.0 37.8 Information Technology
15 SOUTHWEST AIRLINES  3.2 15.0 36.8 Industrials
16 EBAY  3.3 179.2 27.2 Information Technology
17 LSI LOGIC  3.4 8.0 8.5 Information Technology
18 NETWORK APPLIANCE  4.3 34.7 17.2 Information Technology
19 HOSPIRA  4.8 28.6 26.8 Healthcare
20 L-3 COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS  5.2 61.3 35.7 Industrials
21 ALTERA  6.2 38.9 10.1 Information Technology
22 TERADYNE  6.3 6.8 12.0 Information Technology
23 COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS  6.6 14.1 16.2 Information Technology
24 ENTERGY  6.7 -147.4 28.1 Utilities
25 CITRIX SYSTEMS  7.0 2.3 24.7 Information Technology
26 HARTFORD FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP  7.1 179.0 23.8 Financials
27 PEABODY ENERGY  7.1 27.5 0.0 Energy
28 BOSTON SCIENTIFIC  7.1 40.0 0.0 Healthcare
29 QUALCOMM  7.1 172.0 21.7 Information Technology
30 MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY  7.1 72.6 11.0 Information Technology
31 RAYTHEON  7.2 375.0 34.4 Industrials
32 JUNIPER NETWORKS  7.2 64.0 0.0 Information Technology
33 SPRINT NEXTEL  7.9 247.0 32.9 Telecommunication Services
34 ADOBE SYSTEMS  8.2 36.6 25.6 Information Technology
35 HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL  8.3 471.0 25.7 Industrials
36 ALLIED WASTE INDUSTRIES  8.5 30.6 59.7 Industrials
37 XTO ENERGY  8.7 556.0 37.2 Energy
38 UNION PACIFIC  9.0 549.0 36.4 Industrials
39 TIME WARNER  9.0 531.0 19.6 Consumer Discretionary
40 GENERAL ELECTRIC  9.2 2,869.0 15.5 Industrials
41 COMPUWARE  9.6 28.0 18.1 Information Technology
42 XILINX  9.8 39.3 18.7 Information Technology
43 GILEAD SCIENCES  10.0 489.7 0.0 Healthcare
44 CORNING  10.1 225.0 2.9 Information Technology
45 TEXTRON  10.1 175.0 27.6 Industrials
46 TITANIUM METALS  10.2 100.1 30.7 Materials
47 TELLABS  10.3 46.5 31.8 Information Technology
48 NEWELL RUBBERMAID  10.3 19.5 8.6 Consumer Discretionary
49 FIDELITY NATIONAL INFORMATION SERVICES  10.6 80.0 36.7 Information Technology
50 SEARS HOLDINGS  10.6 574.0 37.7 Consumer Discretionary
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NM is Not Meaningful
Effective Tax Rate is the tax rate calculated in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and is a bookkeeping number not a cash figure