I had my own small manufacturing company with 40 employees.
The only reason to add more workers was if I had more business.
Tax cuts went into my pocket for a new BMW and vacations to Europe.
20
My taxes are up (because I live in a state punished by the “tax cut”). If corporations are people can people be corporations? Just wondering because I’d like to pay $0 next year.
20
More evidence the system is rigged and needs radical not marginal change.
16
I’m a current FedEx Ground salaried employee who received AIC bonus instead of overtime. Over the past two years, I am required to work holidays, 10+ hour days and add a weekend day with no overtime and 0 bonus. My hourly managers now make way more than I do. This is the second year we are getting no bonus allegedly. All due to the business markets, TNT acquisition, tariffs yada yada yada - just hold on and you will reap the benefits of these sacrifices. This article makes my blood boil because it is clear that the company is putting profits before its people. Those at the top with Long term incentive bonuses get richer while the salaried managers lose money year over year. My resume is going out today.
35
Was this why HUAWEI got their parcels rerouted by Fedex to USA and withheld around another 100? Maybe Trump called in another favor, this should be investigated.
USA has become the biggest hypocrite, talking about freedom and law of the land but in reality, even more corrupt than any Ukranian government in the past itself.
Same happened to HUAWEI, USA talks about free market and capitalism, but in realiy they want to have a monopoly on spying with domestic NSA and boost domestic tech companies.
Americans need to take control back of their country and institutions, if this is allowed to continue, no wonder there is no money for education and healthcare! If giant corps are not paying taxes! A profit is fair and fine, but everyone needs to chip in a little for the greater good and development of the future of the country!
9
Maybe you should look at the company's (FDX) 10Q -- capex for the most recent 6 months increased $300mm over the prior year's period. Property, plant and equipment increased by almost $2 billion year over year.
4
A company like Fed-ex that profits from public roads and pays no taxes is stealing from everyone that does.
35
True story.
FedEx is anti-union.
Another true story. If an employee gets injured on the job, they will fight tooth and nail to place blame on the employee, citing deviation from safety protocols. To avoid workman’s compensation or disability pay.
FedEx also sets productivity standards so high that it puts employees at risk of injury (when employees cut corners) to meet productivity requirements. ie. amount of pickups in a day, not reaching a destination within 15 minutes (FedEx in NYC), etc.
UPS is union. Ship through them.
27
BOYCOTT FedEx - this week, this month, this year...
Maybe $1 billion lost business will persuade its executives to pay for some of the many publicly-funded services it needs or uses.
19
BERNIE/YANG/GABBARD/WILLIAMSON
Not in bed with corporations, dont owe favors.
Buttigieg,Harris,Biden in bed with high rollers, and owe many favors. Not bad people but repeating sound bites from 20st century politics. Same same.
Warren, too focused on taxing the wealthy and not enough focus on root problems of erosion of our democracy.
Will support democratic candidate either way but truly hope there is some element of progressive attitude.
3
Gabbard is rumored to be in bed with a much bigger and far worse player than all the others: The Russian government.
We don't need another of those, if it's true. Michael Flynn was one too many former military members to be canoodling with with a long-time non-ally, and an adversary at that.
7
Yet, employee bonuses were paltry, and there was no reporting on whether or not the average employees received raises. This is what you would expect from a windfall such as this: the year before paying 1.5 billion in taxes and the next year 0.
The employee who is the driving force of any large company from the lowest to the highest should be compensated; it boosts morale which in turn keeps production high for the employer.
11
"They love our milk and honey, but they preach about some other way of living. When you're running down our country, you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me." - Merle Haggard
3
So let me get this straight. So some people are now shocked that the same capitalists, who benefitted from the tax cuts (They did not, as the mainstream media claimed, have anything to do with tax reform.) have reneged on their collective promises to launch an "investment surge"?
Must be because these capitalists had their fingers crossed behind their respective backs when they made their "promises." For that's what me and my fellow 10 year-olds used to do during the 50's when someone (child or adult) asked us to agree to do something we were unwilling to do.
Back then, crossing your index and middle fingers behind your back made any promise void. I' m shocked to now learn that the capitalists must have remembered this great old tradition to bamboozle both 45 and the American public. Who would have thought?
4
Doesn't this provide ample evidence that Elizabeth Warren is right ? No wonder that corporate executives and billionaires are now waging a war against her wealth tax proposal.
However real tragedy is the real losers (Trump base) are not aware of who is robbing them and keep supporting Trump and the rest of the rich and powerful.
17
@Dodurgali
She's right now, but she wasn't right six months ago when she was taking their money. Or ten years ago when she was legally representing them or twenty some years ago when she was voting Republican. Three months ago her campaign intimated to the corporate establishment that she only wants a "revival", not a revolution. Bernie Sanders hasn't wavered on this one iota for forty years. Young people are serious about REAL change, not just campaign posturing, and are backing Bernie over Liz here. I'm with them, too.
3
Any second now, the first wave from the Reagan "trickle down" experiment will be captured and placed back into the bank accounts of the .00000000000000000001%.
Happy Days are here again, my friends.
9
As a business executive I understand the whys for company stock purchases or buybacks, the higher the stock goes the better my year end bonus; opening the door to greed.
I am good with the reduced corporate tax rates and the spirit of what it was meant to do, this would boost Main Street now and Wall Street later with stronger QOQ results. But an escalating stock price with large cash reserves makes you the “Bell of the Ball” on Wall Street for more investment taking your company value higher; again greed.
I would like to see a tax implemented that makes share buybacks painful to point they are not a fiscally responsible option for corporations to pursue. Next is an aggressive tax on corporate savings accounts that can be traced to tax savings and incentives not being used for material or employee investment. Finally, foreign cash reserves that are parked in low tax havens would be hit with a tax to offset the accounting shenanigans.
I used to not feel this way, but I have watched too many people now suffer from stagnant wages while billion are being stacked in the vault. We need to level the playing field, the wealth gap is getting worse and the ramifications are printed/broadcast daily in the news. No one is worth the exorbitant salaries you see executives make today. The old saying is true, “everyone is replaceable and at lower rate”.
Yes, YOU are replaceable at a lower rate Mr/Ms executive reading this. Do the right thing.
26
I'll never use them again. Just pure evil.
12
Cheats! I won't be using their services any longer!
12
@Allison, Unfortunately, you don't necessarily have a choice if you buy online. You could actively not ship stuff, but you will receive mail and packages from Fedex occasionally.
4
@ Diana
She and all of us will receive fewer deliveries from corporate grifters like FedEx appears to be if she/we politely but firmly communicate to others sending us packages that she/we greatly prefer the sender NOT use FedEx.
And, referring to another of your comments, if USPS does in fact contract out some of its deliveries (which I don't believe is the case, at least at street level), then we all should be CONTACTing the USPS and both houses of CONGRESS to say that we don't want our money, whether from taxes or postage fees, going to un-civically-minded, mooching corporations and their overpaid, over-benefitted execs.
3
It is unacceptable that they pay no taxes on the revenue - simply wrong.
20
In a rural/suburban area - such as I live in - this item will never see the light of day in the local newspaper, nor in the thousands of other small papers around the country.
This is big news only in the big cities, and on the edges of the country.
There are those of us in other locales who read the Times, get sickened by what we read, but so what?
Most Americans will never hear of this kind of travesty - and could care less.
16
It's up to good people like you to bring it to the attention of neighbors, friends, family, coworkers. And ask (demand?) that local news sources report such egregious swindling of average tax-payers' hard earned cash even as the culprits erode our roadways and despoil our air. And that air, polluted over "fly by country" circulates downward and falls downward via rain and snow.
15
Corporate tax breaks like this are a prime example of why there is insurrection by the ultra progressive wing of the Democratic Party led by presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Ultra progressives are tired of corporatists having their own way at the expense of everyone else, so they're willing to roll the dice on taxing billionaires and Medicare for all at the same time democratic moderates get weak knees and caution against going too far left. Meanwhile, corporations gorge themselves at the trough of capitalistic excess with their newfound friend Trump and treat workers like so much collateral damage when time comes for mass layoffs in the name of maximizing shareholder value. When Trump's tax cuts went into effect, I watched a corporate executive literally dance a jig, flashing a big wide grin. Karl Marx had it right: the bourgeoisie controls the manufacture and distribution of goods, while a mostly compliant proletariat sells its labor to the bourgeoisie for a fraction of the profit derived from their sweat and sacrfice. Politics being a fool's game, Marx would say, in that it's a mechanism used by the rich to protect their economic interests. Disagree? Call up the IRS and try to get a sweet deal like FedEx and its corporate ilk.
22
So Fedex gets Congress to hamstring the US Postal Service on one end, eliminating competition, and pays zero taxes on the other end. That’s not capitalism, that’s corporate socialism.
36
And corporate (read Board of Directors, top execs, and majority shareholders) greed
8
Gosh.
I am not a farmer or a billionaire (not that I consider the latter equal to the former), so I guess I’ll just have to pay my taxes...
10
Headline translation: Elizabeth Warren for president.
16
Why, so she can politely ask them to “pay their fair share?” She’s as complicit in this rotten system as anyone else. Only Bernie names the real enemy.
1
@Robert how is she complicit? Don’t just lob out allegations. Let’s here some reasons.
6
Fed Ex, UPS -- increase in income due to continuing growth of on line purchases via Amazon etc. More home deliveries, needed more vehicles and drivers -- accelerated full depreciation of equipment a gift to those businesses. They saw the trend. Flip side is the loss of retailers - Sears, JC Penney etc. Lot's of empty space at many malls - go take a look! Trickle down just doesn't work - never has. Only positive aspect I can see is reduced highway traffic as customers do not have to travel to stores. This all fully predictable. But, campaign contributions and lobbying rule the day. After all, corporations are people too - right??? Now, with low interest rates, stock market on the upswing why? Because most corporate dividends exceed returns on fixed income guaranteed/insured deposits - savings, CD's. Diversification of portfolios dropping. Risk on the upswing. All of this beyond the comprehension of Cadet "Sharpie" Bone Spurs. Beware!!
12
Because money talks, I mean “money is speech”.
10
It takes years for large companies to plan, design, construct & equip a new facility or undertake a change in capital expenditure policy that would be meaningful to a large enterprise. It is unrealistic to make an analysis of tax rates & capital expenditures over such a short period of time. A 5-10 year analysis will provide a much more meaningful analysis.
6
Exactly the "argument" given in every pyramid scheme - "give it time!"
18
Ponzu scheme is an apt comparison.
Madoff would be honored to sell you something else... if he hadn’t gone to jail for it already. Trickledown hasn’t ever worked either, and that’s been going for at least four decades.
13
Please join me in boycotting FedEx for avoiding paying the taxes that should be supporting our country.
16
How many workers and the company's payroll? And its purchase of trucks/vehicles, fuel, airplanes and parts, tires, mechanical supplies, cardboard, rent, real estate, extended home purchases from its thousands of workers, extended to retail, grocery, clothing and shoes and socks, schools, mortgages, garbage pickup, weddings, insurance and medical, Wall Street, Main Street, childcare, recreation, holiday travel, birthdays and anniversaries and funerals, college tuition and textbooks and publishers and new and used cars, movie tickets, rent and utility payments, oil changes, mattresses and fishing gear, kitchenware, sheets and towels, boats, light bulbs and meat and potatoes, farmers and citrus and tobacco and marijuana, magazines and newspapers and subscriptions and payroll and offices and coffee and subways and taxis and helicopters, cellphone and tablets and software and cameras and telescopes and hobbies and lovemaking, police and fire and prisons and roads and lawnmowers and gardens and tools and hardware and haircuts and makeup and knee replacements, wine and whiskey, pencils, pens and paper and computers and healthcare and kids dental care. California, Texas, Florida and New York produce more revenue than the rest of the world. And we complain about taxes, taxes that every honest person tries to shave when possible. And feds throw away billions a day in interest. Nice.
4
Well, FedEx. Maybe it's "good business" to you. But to me it's a reason to stop giving you my business and my money. Your competitors will get all of it.
9
Just imagine the size of the bonuses these execs received. It is immoral.
13
FedEx is not a good company to work for. They treat their "independent contractors," poorly. In turn, those contractors, pay their employees low wages.
9
You have no idea what you’re talking about. Yes Fedex “Ground” consists of independent contractors. Fedex doesn’t treat them bad. They do not work for Fedex..they work for their the owner of those routes. They do not get benefits.
"Job Creators" - This such a weird concept to me. I've been in the workforce both as employee and as employer for the last 40 odd years in multiple countries including the USA.
In that time and in all those places I have never, ever, not once, met an entrepreneur who claims that he gets up in the morning thinking: "Hmm, I wonder how many *jobs* I can create today?" ...
If anything, it's going to be more along the line of: "If I can get my existing workers each to do more today with less then that saved wage cost will go straight to my bottom line. So, how many jobs can I eliminate today?" - they'll even go to the trouble and expense of hiring job eliminators who usually lurk in "HR" and "Finance" departments.
Any jobs created by an entrepreneur are only because he / she has found no way to get something done without that employee.
I wish politicians and their media spokespeople would stop using the term "Job creator" especially when the turn towards AI and the "gig" economy are wiping out jobs at an increasing rate.
15
I am not wealthy but thru my work in the financial services industry interaction with the very wealthy. One thing I have notice over the years is that they all hate paying taxes and will do just about anything to avoid paying their fair share. I have never understood why people who have benefited so much from the American System never feel it is their obligation to fund the government. They will donate tons of money to non profits who stroke their egos and help them avoid taxes.
19
Grover Norquist Is the main conspirator against America & against maintaining our infrastructure.He & The Brainwashed republicans are plotting to destroy democracy, by a 1000 cuts.
His philosophy includes enshrining all tax deductions/breaks so that the Tax code will never be fair or democratic.
Its no wonder he is associated w an Anti American islamic view for America as Trump promotes. Still supplying arms & a market for their Climate change Polluting Filth.Still denying proper import taxes for foreign Fossil fuels.
11
This subject could have been addressed with sophistication and neutrality and, if it had, would have added to a credible policy assessment. A missed opportunity.
3
@Michael what is neutral about shinning a light on the spurious claim that workers would benefit from corporate tax cuts?
8
Hold on a minute...FedEx employees who work for the Express side of the company get a pension...great hourly pay...outstanding health benefits...and after 1 year of service get 2 weeks off for vacation...sick days along with personal time off...and paid national holidays...you also get short term and long term disability pay...plus 401k matching contributions with Vanguard...FedEx also offers opportunities to become manangers and climb the ladder if you want...all possible with a high school education...and not lets forget all the taxes us employees pay...FedEx is a outstanding company...look at all the relief work they do to move goods for free during natural disasters....
9
@rs Yes, pension. Right. Being a Pittsburgher I have a certain skepticism about "corporate pensions." We had an exodus of people from our state when ex-steel worker's pensions were taken from them by judges and handed to the steel companies. If I was working for FedEx and being promised a pension I'd look very closely at the fine print. I guarantee you that if FedEx should fall on hard times, those pension promises will be the first to vanish.
4
yet the average citizen has no option to not pay higher taxes than any other group....so a reverse robin-hood......got it.......now, how do WE turn this around?
could it be we get a government that does their job, and wok for US, not the lobbyist/big corporations, etc..? can we get a candidate to commit to taking back this absurd tax gift, and help us, say maybe 10% permanent cut for us...we the people make the GDP, not some rich old men.....so we have more "disposable" income to do as we wish...and the remaining 10% goes to infrastructure/education/healthcare.....etc......
8
@keith Nobody is going to get a tax cut. The folks that got them, are going to see them clawed back. Have to stop the punitive types, just claw them back. And overturn Citizens United. That is what started this. Creepy ads by a hedge fund about hospitals closing during an ambulance ride.
4
This company steals from American and from all its hard working taxpayers. If one loves ones country paying taxes should be seen as a duty, not something to avoid. I am sick of American Companies which behave like this and this is sanctioned, condoned and/or facilitated by the Republicans, something they have always done to average American citizens.
12
A couple of years ago, a city near me started a new child-care allowance and a family having, say, three kids, abruptly got a windfall like $200 monthly. Then a while later, there was a survey on how they used that money. In many cases, it went to the husband's pockets and eventually to bars and pachinko halls.
2
The incredibly true exposition eloquently testified by fact and figures, indeed goes beyond my world of imagination! As a student of economics in the class of 1962 I tend to quip the lion's share of the courier company, FedEx's infusion of capital, in point of fact, is indirectly contributed as windfall gain, through the Govt.'s fiscal policy of unprecedented tax cut. As so, where is the paying back to the nation by the company to the Govt.'s magnanimous action? No where near even the common sense-outcome! In stead the company reportedly bought back shares in the market in order to lessen the load of liabilities , declared hefty dividend to the owners i.e. a small group of equity contributors! I seem to have heard a buzz-word once before, albeit no textbook terminology, 'trickle down' economic growth! Perhaps I might have perceived now a good example of what it actually makes and looks like!!
S. A. Samad, USA
1
This article is unfortunately just a dog whistle for the left. FedEx almost certainly paid every dime they owed. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news to the left. Companies and taxpayers exist to make money for THEMSELVES. They are not ATM machines for the bloated and clumsy Federal government. Perhaps if the left understood this and softened their anti-business rhetoric, they’d win more elections.
10
@Jason Yea, but FedEx is driving on roads we have to pay for. Perhaps "the right," should take that into consideration. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news to "the right," but the people they are supporting, are taking them to the cleaners.
17
What is wrong with a company maximizing it's profits for it's shareholders? That's what a company is supposed to do.
7
@James in the old days, there was a balance between shareholders, employees and communities in which businesses were located. The balance no longer exists
15
@MEH
Which old days are you referring to?
4
@James The 'old days' MEH refers to are the days before Reagan. In time, the beginning of the Fall of the American Empire will be traced to President Ronald Reagan and the apostles of greed insider trading and self-dealing from America's wealth that rode in on his coattails. I was there, I saw it, I witnessed the beginning of the end.
7
Imagine that. Another corporate leader and his company putting himself and executive pay before anything else. No way the Fred Smith depicted in "Castaway" thoughtfully greeting Tom Hanks' character and showing empathy is the real Fred Smith nor the real Fed Ex.
10
“Amazon and Netflix paid no federal tax on 2018 profits.”
- CBS
Will Liberals boycott such firms?
4
But those companies are newbies compared to FedEx, and Netflix uses far
fewer public resources
3
It is interesting that in the entire article I could find
no mention of the American Taxpayer.
Are they not the one's who pay Fed-Ex for their services ?
We seem to pay for it twice - by using Fed-Ex to deliver
a package and by the increase in National Debt.
15
Isn't the story about how the Congress awarded FedEx freedom from taxation at the veritable expense of the taxpayers?
11
You love capitalism in 2019?
Live with it.
You have had the opportunity to destroy Republicans but still, a large number of Americans are masochists. They love their guns and God. See what that gets you!
10
@Welcome Canada Hey we have Kenny and Alberta in the West whinning about how they have no representation and then vote Conservative. Now sprouting how they will make Quebec for a pipeline they said no do. Check out Dowling and those in the West it is happening here. I do love Alberta already lots of high paid trips, sweet heart law deals with one members son and cutting health and schools. Not just in the US here in Canada it is the same garbage. I live in Ontario with a corrupt toad governing and gutting for his rich friends. The only tax cuts here have been for the corporations. Oh, yes they will trickle it down to us. Politicians play the nasty game sprout venom about enemies and their base love it, sprout venom and slit their own throats. One thing about capitalism it is based on a nation of stupid people. Jim Trautman
2
“60 profitable Fortune 500 companies paid no taxes on a total of $79 billion of profits earned in 2018.”
Included in these 60 firms are Amazon and Netflix.
- CBS News
8
I am so glad (sarcastically) that the Fed Ex owners have enough money to donate to yet another Sports Area, Music Center, Charter School, Nonprofit ….in or under their name...so we can all see how civic minded they are, how generous and even patriotic!
I am a small business owner and pay my taxes.
The system is completely broken if such disparity can happen.
16
This is beyond disturbing. FEDEX is the poster child for which companies SHOULD WILLINGLY pay tax to use the taxpayer-funded infrastructure. The CEO should be ashamed of himself. Great article. I will never ever, ever, use FEDEX again.
I guess it is even more obvious now about who one should vote for in the upcoming election. Maybe even some low-information moderate voters with see this with some clarity now. At the next debate the moderators should ask a for show-of-hands/litmus test question regarding this debacle and the trump Tax Scam of 2018.
11
This could explain the two consecutive years of trillion dollar budget deficits during a period 'of the best economy in history'. But, think positively abou the future: Trump told us the tax cuts would 'pay for themselves' and everyone knows Trump could never, ever lie to American citizens.
8
Republicans don't like taxes on the wealthy or corporations. They love taxing the workaday Joe.
If Trump is reinstalled in 2020 by Russian trolls on Facebook, look for Republicans to pass a tax bill that doesn't just cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy, but gives them an earned income tax credit. The annual deficits will triple, the national debt quadruple, but no one cares about debt while Republicans are in charge of spending and tax giveaways.
12
@JABarry except that republicans gave every American a tax cut outside of suburbanites hurt by then SALT deduction limit.
2
Wrong. You are mistaken. I paid more in 2018 on the same income and so did others. You cannot make a statement that is false here just because you feel like it.
3
None of this is surprising and many clear-eyed people predicted this outcome.
12
This article says that FedEx did not make the investments that the big tax plan was supposed to get from them.
The article then quotes FedEx saying that yes, it did. It claimed capital expenditures, employee retirement accounts paid in, raises for employees, and new hires.
Somebody is not telling the truth there. It is a long read. I think the flat out lie is the lede, and that it should be the top, reinforced all the way through, not buried.
4
@Mark Thomason
The article also clearly states these ended up to amounting to less than they had planned already before the tax cuts.
So the tax cuts did apparently nothing but to actually slightly dampen capital expenditures, retirement build-up, raises and new hires.
Anyone who took Federal Income Tax in law school, as I did, cannot be surprised at this headline. And while I never practiced as a Tax attorney, (I was a federal prosecuting attorney.) I took away a few important lessons.
First, the Tax Code (Code) is complex because it overwhelmingly [I would argue by a 90 or more percentage factor in deductions/loopholes] favors corporations and wealthy individuals.
Second, statistics demonstrate that as a result of this bias (think lobbying) a minimum of 50% of all U. S. corporations, and, I would argue, wealthy individuals as well, l pay no taxes after their gross taxable income has been calculated.
Finally, and due to this "intended" bias, there will never be a "Flat Tax" or, for that matter, any tax reform (i. e substantive changes to the Code). For why would any of these Code "beneficiaries" ever allow their elected representatives [in the age of Citizens United] to make them pay their fair share? I know what you're thinking and you're right, "It ain't gonna' happen."
16
Trump Country: shrug
7
Wierd how corporations can sway elections with their money but don't pay taxes.
14
@ricky -- The money they put into elections is small change compared to the tax cuts they get from it.
Not only do they buy our government, they buy it on the cheap. We're easy.
14
And their lobbyists write the laws.
5
don't you wonder where's YOUR tax cut ?!
6
We have other options than Fedex, like the post office!
7
@becky Yes use the post office. And farmers who grow food locally, small businesses that sell books, underwear, dog food, etc right there in your town, shopping and preparing your own meals. But no. We’re too busy, distracted, impatient, important. We must have it—all of it— and right now. No matter the cost(s). We are all complicit. Those who govern know it: Keep ‘em on the screens, they’ll never know what hit ‘em.
2
This is not an unexpected consequence the people who created the new tax law had this exact result in mind. If we ever get rid of the clown prince in the White House, a revision of the tax code should be mandatory. Before you get "medicare for all" and "free college for all", you have to have a source of funding.
FedEx, UPS, and others utilize public resources to do their business. It is a foundation of a capitalist economy that infrastructure be built and maintained in order to do business. There is nothing in any capitalist doctrine that says the infrastructure is free.
Use taxes on transportation infrastructure should be based on the cost of creating and maintaining the infrastructure with fuel taxes being the easiest to implement and enforce.
In areas with need for other infrastructure such as the Internet taxes need to be in the form of an access charge and a use charge. Let's forget about "income taxes", lets tax the specifics that allow these companies to create income.
Imagine if every Instagram or Twitter cost the platform providing the access $0.01 for every message?
Passing the charges on to the users would be tantamount to tax evasion and punishable by existing laws and standards.
For all you out there who want to breakup "big tech" think about how much revenue Facebook alone could generate for social programs.
You want capitalists to be successful, you just don't want them successful on the backs of individual citizens.
6
Fed Ex vehicles are primarily powered by gas or Diesel engines. When they purchase fuel for them They Pay Fuel Tax included in the pump price.
Don’t confuse Income Tax with Fuel Tax. The fuel tax that has been increased in most states, is to be used to maintain and repair our highways.
4
So where are the jobs.
Pension schemes get wiped if the Company goes Bankrupt.
4
It always seems to trickle up? hummmm. Oh! Got it now.
11
They need all the legal breaks possible.
One of their primary competitors is the USPS - 650,000 unionized government employees who cannot be fired with elite healthcare and the most generous retirement program in the country. And with tons of contractors.
4
Can you explain the logic in your comment? If anything, the money that USPS spends on healthcare and the proportion of workers who are unionized would put them at a disadvantage. You were either being facetious, or you have some trouble with the concept of cause and effect.
7
Trump complains about our allies not paying their fair share for defense, not a word about freeloaders in America. Maybe his tax returns will shed some light on this mystery.
13
Corporates are people or person like Trump, they do not pay taxes.
6
Wolves running the hen house. The middle class is being gutted, even more, if that is possible.
10
Thank you. I subscribe to the NYT for this kind of news reporting, not that "Smarter Living" stuff and pieces what used to be called "Life Style" articles. I will admit, however, that once in a while, the "Smarter Living" section has some useful information.
2
This always springs to mind: “I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.” ~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan. November 12, 1816
8
I'm looking forward to the day when Trump is an ex-Fed.
16
Go for it Elizabeth Warren!!
8
The US is underinvested in income tax enforcement....and it is underinvested in financial crimes journalism. This might be a household name which makes it sexy enough to be fit to print, but journalists like Lucy Komisar have tried to pitch stories about illegal transfer pricing schemes to media outlets, and they are met with a yawn. I often have the feeling the FBI is simply the political police that occasionally cracks down on a financial crime just to keep up appearances that they aren't working for the mob. This fees like one such token story.
It's easy to get outraged about the administration or unfair laws, but unless there is a credible threat of enforcement - either via the IRS or through journalism, transfer pricing abuse will run rampant.
Oh, what's transfer pricing? See.
1
Behind the historic fallacy of trickle down, corporations, now through the Trump sycophants of the Republican Party, continue, as they did with Ronald Reagan, to manipulate American politics and economy using popular—shall we say, at best, mediocre—media characters as chief executive. Previously, things were held in check by the adversarial differences between communism and capitalism. Today, the adversary is world oligarchy, and there is nothing and no one, except patriotic and experienced government bureaucrats risking their reputations and careers, holding the worst in check. This is Trump’s America.
6
Stop blaming corporations for the world's problems. The corporations serve customers, too many of them, an overpopulated world driving all of the problems. Blame the couple having more than three children who use all of the resources, the corporations are only the symptom. Think it through to the bottom line of overpopulation driving every problem you complain about in the world. Less customers, less problems, more money available to deal with these problems. Less pollution!
2
@Jim
How does a smaller US population lower the average tax burden? The same number of roads need to be maintained, ditto the same military.
I am tired of paying taxes for FedEx and Amazon and other companies that directly benefit from government services.
14
Taxes are for the little people
14
Us suckers pay our taxes, but we will never catch the runaway deficit train now. How discouraged and helpless I feel for the next generation.
13
Anthropologists and social psychologists have long identified an acute sensitivity (and hostility) to free riders who exploit tribal resources without contributing to tribal tasks. There is no public sentiment favoring this sort of wealth transfer, and the related neglect of production of public goods; it results from the unresponsiveness of a privatized Congress to their actual (political) constituents.
So FedEx has nailed the commonwealth for $1.6 billion. I eagerly await the preparation by NYT or WP or public interest groups of a totalized estimate of such subsidies and tax expenditures by Trump administration, and a description of how far the foregone revenues would have gone to pay teachers fairly, repair roads and other infrastructure, and rationalize health care. We've seen other stories about specific firms' masterly tax avoidance schemes, but an overall estimate of what could have been done with these gifts to corporate American is long overdue.
Praise to all who worked on this.
14
It's my understanding that most of the FedEx delivery vans are owned by independent contractors who make the deliveries.
3
No fair-minded observer has anything good to say about the Trump tax bill. And there's a lot of data out there to show how it favored corporations without benefit to the public.
Still, fact checking is fact checking. And FedEx is the wrong company to pick on. The last two years nave been bad for FedEx. Its package delivery market share has been dropping, in part because of competition from Amazon. FedEx stock has dropped an alarming 38% in the last two years. It is going through a very hard time and that's why it hasn't reinvested.
The effects of FedEx's competitive problems far outweigh tax issues. In general, taxes affect corporate behavior marginally, but in important ways. But here the tax issues are subsumed by FedEx's decline. So just about everything here about FedEx is misleading and exaggerated.
If you want to demonstrate the effect of the Trump tax bill, there are many other companies that you can analyze. But analyzing FedEx is not helpful and suggests that behavior due to competitive problems is actually due to taxes.
Michjas's fact checking service gives this article the second lowest of grades. There are no lies. But the article is as misleading as can be.
2
I will have to say, selection of this specific"large" company, distorts the reality of the Corp tax cuts. When one looks at the multiple, "Small" business, the return is much greater, it allows them to, in some cases double their business size, with expansion. that coupled with the number of business start-up, should have been the focus of the article. In my own personal observation, I have seen several small business, double quadruple in size, thanks to the tax cuts. The New York times has published several articles on the lose of Corp business, due to the extremely high tax in the US compared to extremely low Corp tax of Mexico, China and multiple other countries that have been used to move US business to a more profitable taxed country. Nevertheless, I am concerned by the amount of Media article, subjectivity targeting the current US Adminstration. Constantly utilizing anything that they can twist around, to be a negative view of the office of the President.
1
The tax cut was always a massive gift to corporate America in thanks for their support of Donald Trump and lapdogs such as McConnell. They were never going to reinvest in the U. S.
10
Great reporting. Insightful analysis. To what end? Corporate interests hold all the power...financially, politically, socially. Democracy is dead. Long live the oligarchy.
9
Regular people now pay taxes so billionaires and corporations don’t have to. Isn’t it great! We also fight their wars! This is just how they want it.
23
They also bought a $6b annuity in 2018 to shift the pension obligations of 41,000 pensioners off their balance sheet. The risk is now fixed with any future funding shortfalls pushed on to State insurance funds.
7
Who are the Democratic candidates that are going to put an end to this destructive abuse of power by corporate America?
10
If you have any kind of savings and retirement plans, i.e., IRAs, 401Ks, pensions, index funds, mutual funds, you have benefited from the dividends paid by FDX and stock price appreciation. And it looks like FDX increased their contribution by $1.5 billion to their pension plan according to their 2019 Form 10-K filed with the SEC. Also, even if FDX had paid the entire $1.5 billion in taxes, are we sure the federal government would have responsibly spent the money on infrastructure? How long have we and the corporations been paying taxes and still been driving on streets full of pot holes and crumbling highways? By the way, where is that infrastructure plan from Pelosi and Schumer? But all of this may be moot if Warren/Sanders win in 2020, since taxes will go back up, and any dividends and stock appreciations will be nonexistent.
1
@Chatte Cannelle Trump was never interested that is where it went.Here is some common info. for you even the Fed chairman said most of these companies are way overvalued. Of course then they write it down as a loss and collect more money. Jim Trautman
2
Another note:
FedEx is a direct competitor with the government-owned and operated postal service. This is further reason to make sure that FedEx pays high taxes.
5
the system works!!
2
And this is draining the swamp?
5
Corporate freeloaders.
10
Everyone in this article should be in prison.
10
Sickening. Just sickening. and infuriating.
9
There is no real democracy going on here in the good ol' U.S. of A. What we have is a Corporatocracy, a term used to refer to an economic and political system controlled by corporation, as opposed to the people's interests. And we have administration after administration, and Supreme Court Decisions supporting our corporations ruling this nation. Over many decades we've evolved - no, devolved - into a society that supports greed more above all else - and this administration and Congress epitomizes it to the hilt. If each and everyone of us does not take a stand on this, we're sunk. Let's get out of this mire.
16
The good news here is that after several decades of languishing business news coverage, the NYT appears to be waking up, ever so slowly. Better late than never. But in all too typical fashion, this story might have readers believe that FedEx is an aberration.
There's nothing they did as reported here to reduce their tax bill that isn't being done by their Fortune 500 peers in spades, across every industry. Further, your reporters seem to imply that all of this wheeling and dealing by corporate America to obliterate taxes, fatten shareholder returns, etc. started in earnest or gained steam under the Trump administration. While certain sectors have fared better under Trump in this arena, others made out like bandits under Obama. This wholesale effort to pay as little taxes as possible has been a centerpiece of U.S. corporate strategy for at least the last four decades, regardless of what party was in power. That's one reason why Sanders and Warren have galvanized millions of citizens, many for the first time in ages.
15
How is it possible to conclude anything OTHER THAN, the US tax code MUST be revised to prevent these mega-corporations from wearing out our public infrastructure while paying ZERO taxes in return?
14
Its not the tax code but Citizens United that is allowing corporations to take over.
8
This article is a clear endorsement of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, proof that they are telling us the truth about corporate America's agenda. What could those lost taxes have done for the country?
15
All hail the hallowed job creators.
4
is this good or bad?
@Megan
Is me goose or gander?
2
FedEx is a prime example of what's wrong with our current version of capitalism.
Their 'employees' - those that drive trucks and deliver packages aren't even employees, they are independent contractors who PAY for the routes they work.
In effect they are paying for the ability to do work for FedEx.
The same is the case now for most other delivery jobs: bread trucks, snack foods, etc.
In contrast UPS drivers are unionized and work directly for UPS receiving benefits from UPS
16
My immediate question was where UPS stood given the similarities in service. Thank you for the perspective.
What can brown do you for?
2
According to the FedEx drivers who deliver to my house, FedEx has also been going to extreme lengths to keep their drivers from unionizing & offer horrible hours & employee benefits.
They are all ready to switch over to UPS as a result... and when your employees are unhappy enough to share such details with random customers, you have SERIOUS internal issues!
22
I live in Silicon Valley. Apple and Google both file property tax appeals annually claiming that their incredibly valuable property is worth $1. Someone in the County Assessor's office told me that the reason Apple built its "spaceship" style campus was so it could not be equated to other property, and thus would become - from a property tax perspective - "functionality obsolete." A few years ago Apple had more money than the U.S. Treasury. Now you don't have to wonder why.
10
@anita Something has to be the standard, why doesn't the assessor's office use the Apple and Google property as such; it might mean those companies tax share would rise and others fall.
1
Another anti-capitalism article by the NYT. So predictable. I am proud to be a FedEx shareholder.
2
@Robert Stewart
Proud?
Rather fortuitous and "well-off" first come to my mind.
9
I truly can appreciate and understand the necessity for American corporations to have certain tax breaks. There should be some incentives for these companies to remain in the states rather than to set up shop in competing countries.
That being said, shouldn't there also be a certain reasonableness to the limits and degrees of said tax breaks/tax cuts?
Why must there be such an extreme and a blatant and flaunting extreme such as zero taxes owed?
For the past 3 years, I have felt more financial pain with this group than previous groups. I'm tired of it. I'm also tired of feeling as if the financial woes of this country fall on my back because heck, I'm working, I'm paying my share and then some, and yet where does that get me? A step closer to the poor house, that's where.
I'm also tired of being insulted by the arrogance of this group.
Enough already.
At the rate this is going, corporate America will never agree to any kind of Medicare for All kind of mindset and in the end, I'll be paying more than my share of that too should either Ms. Warren or Mr. Sanders get elected.
4
No representation without taxation!
6
This is why I am voting for Elizabeth Warren.
Corporations and the people who reap millions from them are simply not paying their fair share.
This is disgusting.
10
Over and over the Repubicans claim the tax cuts will pay for themselves and result in lots of investment. Over and over it has been shown that does not happen. Instead we get big increases in the federal deficit, which they only care about when the Democrats are in control. If only Republicans would use evidence-based decision making. But they don't. They just spin the same old baloney. Trump of course is not remotely smart enough to begin to understand any of it. He believes bankruptcy is a good outcome.
12
Reagan's Libertarian Dystopia = Corporations over all.
7
Surprise!
3
Don’t use FedEx or UPS.
Send everything by USPS. Give them your business. Biggest union in the US, and hard working. Great way for immigrants to become part of US workforce.
10
@Olie Olie Except the USPS doesn't move all their own product.
1
@suz USPS = the only org in the industry that will deliver one small piece of paper to an off-the-grid, remote cabin in Alaska. The others are but pale imitations.
6
An old Canadian socialist, David Lewis, referred to big business as "corporate welfare bums." Fed Ex is an apt example.
10
"How Republicans and Greed are Bankrupting America"
...fixed the headline for you.
21
Another example of corporate greed, cloaked in empty promises. "No, believe us, reward us bigly and it will come to you as well..." Except that they never, ever, share. Haven't we heard enough of these billionaire corporate lies?
7
What I enjoy is the myth that Wall Street is the economy. No, I look at other trends. Wall Street is flying for several reasons by the way it was flying the day before the Crash Of 1929 and before 08. Corporations have used the tax cuts to pay dividends, but more importantly to purchase their own shares which drives their values higher, but the CEO, senior management and board members make even more since their compensation is based on the stock price. Check out why Boeing put out a death trip for an plane the Super Max. Even the Fed chair indicated and then said no more that companies are overvalued and to me what goes up comes down. Why the market everyone is pushed into the market since the interest rates are being held zero for that reason. Shipping totals are down, drilling companies bankrupt, the 8th major coal company, less employment in the mines, airlines passengers numbers dropping and their cargo lifts declining. Check out RV lots filled to the brim can't give them away, layoffs, record number of cars being repossessed, jobs, yes, at what pay. With Kraft/Heinz, Mattel and others cooking the books gee do we think it is the one. Hey, art sales were down and many never met the sale price. Oh, the signs are there if one wants to look. Solution we will have tightened our belts, pay more for health care and of course gut social security. I did mention the billions given to farmers for growing nothing. But, that is socialism. Jim Trautman
6
Republicans in all three branches of government wake-up every morning with the same two questions/goals: 1) How can I make the super rich more super rich; and 2) How can I keep average white Americans upset enough about abortion, guns and brown people to keep them voting for Question/Goal 1 and against their own best interests.
17
How is it right from any angle for a company like FedEx to pay zero taxes while the average person, even retirees, pays about one third of their income in taxes? How did we arrive at this shameful state of affairs?
15
And all of you get your packages. Day after day. Hypocrites. Every last one of you.
2
There is another option. It’s called the United States Postal Service. I’m pledging to use only the USPS for all my shipping. Not only does my business help support my local carrier, whom I adore, but it will also serve as a nice poke in the eye to Mr. Scrooge.
21
I'll second that!
8
Added benefit:
It is a serious federal crime to tamper with or steal a piece of USPS mail. Not so with FedEx or UPS envelopes or packages.
9
@Kathryn The USPS does not move all of their own product. Just because you ship it USPS doesn't mean it actually travels USPS.
1
This is the kind of thing that makes Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren resonate with average Joe’s that pay their taxes.
16
OK Boomers.. show me the money (ROI) on this $1 TRILLION TAX CUT.
“It did provide a short-term boost, but it wasn’t the big response that many people expected,” said Aparna Mathur, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who recently concluded that the 2017 law has not meaningfully changed investment patterns in America.
If the democrats had any brains, they would have tied a minimum wage increase into this tax cut. All of that money going to minimum wage workers would have flowed directly into the economy, boosting GDP longer term.
OR forget the tax cut.. and pass an infrastructure bill worth $1 Trillion. Everyone benefits.
7
You’re assuming Democrats aren’t also controlled by the ruling class in America. More proof, that they didn’t even try to work for the interests of the ninety-nine percent.
1
You do remember that Republicans were in control of both houses when this happened?
11
Why trash boomers with your comment? Millions of us despise this tax cut, our so-called president, and everything about his administration and the GOP. Millions of us agree with Warren’s and Sanders’ ideas to fight income inequality. Stop the stereotyping and try to see that many boomers aren’t all evil and we want what you want, too. We need to be united to win back our democracy in 2020.
11
Let's see ... we have a billionaire president who pushed for a tax cut that would benefit billionaires ... is anyone really surprised this happened? He and his Republican cronies didn't even want to add in any tax cut for regular folks at all, and when they did (as an afterthought, for PR purposes), they made it a temporary thing that would expire after a few years.
Blatant corruption my friends, that's what this administration gives us,
18
Mr. Graf’s calling the tax cut “a Christmas gift” - denying American taxpayers a billion dollars - seems appropriately vile and somewhat clueless.
6
No wonder the fear Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
9
Your conscience may feel a lot better, and that image looking back at you in the mirror Monday morning may be all the more attractive or palatable, if you commit to discussing a short- or longer-term boycott of FedEx by your firm or company.
While one may rightly feel for the hourly-wage employees of FedEx, perhaps a $1.5 billion loss in business or market share will persuade the FedEx Board (and those of other big corporations) to be more civically-minded and -mindful moving forward.
4
Trickle down economy has been proven, over and over, to be ineffective in stimulating the economy - even if Fox Disinformation Networks trumpet the opposite. Eventually, facts matter. Tax cuts for the wealthy are just that: welfare for those who don't need it. Those who work pay for the rich while our country's infrastructure continues to decays and our deficit is ballooning. Thank you so much, Donald Trump, for making America weaker each day and for allowing the American tax payers to pay for your long and wonderfully relaxing golf weekends. You were right in criticizing other presidents for taking a few days off. Only you deserve a break. We will keep this in mind come Election Day.
11
When will enough be enough? The billionaire class will never have enough, so it al depends on the 'regular' us citizens to have enough of their lies and practices, and fulfill their citizens duty. Vote them out, or sharpen the pitchforks and start marching..
4
The GOP has been trying to destroy the US Post Office for a very long time! It is the one agency that is in the Constitution and was there at the beginning.
16
As a Fedex employee we were given a bonus payout instead of our hourly raise. Which to be honest was ridiculous. We were told money was going into the pension. Who knows if it did we received no statement in regards to this.Then we were given a whopping 2% raise a year later. It was a disappointment to say the least. We are actually losing money because of higher health care contributions and surpluses of $150 a month for spouses. Thanks
17
I am all for capitalism but there needs to be balance. And regulations to make sure there is fair play. The pendulum has swung way too far in the direction of business to the detriment of everyone else. How many times has the gov been stuck with the bill for toxic environmental cleanups? We need to stop the gaslighting and highlight that for every full time employee that needs gov assistance for food and shelter....that’s a business subsidy. For all the benefits of doing business in a stable country with rule of law where they can minimize to zero their taxes...that’s a business subsidy. Time to step up and be a good citizen.
5
Report any Fed Ex drivers you see driving dangerously, running red lights, backing up traffic, illegally parking, etc... Maybe if the Cities and Counties get enough citations they can make up a little.
3
Especially since in small and large cities, politely asking a FedEx driver to move his/her vehicle, say, so that other drivers aren't forced to choose between a head-on collision with oncoming traffic or at least a moving vehicle violation on the one hand or waiting sometimes up to approximately 15-20 minutes for the driver to move the vehicle and maybe missing an important medical or business appointment or a child's solo in the school choir, on the other.
Some of those delivery service drivers are put under such pressures and must receive so little vetting or training regarding both vehicle-related regulations and common interpersonal decency that even asking them to inch forward a but so one can safely and easily get out of one's own driveway can be a fraught and intimidating experience.
2
It seems that every major problem in America can be traced by to corporate greed in one form or another.
1. Oil and fossil fuel companies pushing back on transition to renewables.
2. Pharma and health insurance companies overcharge and pushing people out of access.
3. The private prison system pushing for strict laws to keep criminals in jail.
4. Wall Street pushing deregulatory polices that put the U.S. economy in boom/bust cycles.
5. Military contractors pushing for bloated military budgets and endless war.
6. And any company that corrupted NAFTA & TPP and pushed for permanent normal trade relations with China.
This is why I don't vote for establishment candidates.
10
How much more of this are we going to take?
7
Fight back! Bernie2020
5
What a surprise that Trump's tax cuts (aka handouts) for his wealthy cohorts has proven to be a disaster for everyone else. I am shocked. Shocked.
8
The robber barons are once again in charge. We need another Teddy Roosevelt.
12
We have one. It’s our last chance. Bernie is the one we need to finish the work of FDR.
7
@Lilly
Right on!
@Lilly
FYI: FDR is NOT the same person as Teddy Roosevelt.
Please read a little history before you vote or tell others how to do so.
Writing legislation of any type should not be influenced by the beneficiaries.
This influence should be illegal and eliminated.
I realize lobbyists are an part of our now horrible system of government but directly influencing the writing of legislation is proof that our “representative form of government” is now for the wealthy and not the “people”. I am so disgusted
6
I guess someone has to keep repeating the obvious, which is simply that our government is owned, in its entirety, by corporate America, and consequently, as any good employee does, this government does the bidding of corporate America, all of the time.
Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party sold their souls decades ago, and since then corporate America has steadily seeded government with current and former employees, covertly assisting our "elected" representatives in the writing of bills and passage of legislation designed to further enrich corporate America and the wealthiest Americans, while beggaring the poor and the middle-class.
Currently both parties are engaged in their latest and greatest undertaking to date, such being the fake attempt to impeach Trump, an effort designed to fail, and they even have the chutzpah to have a milder version of Trump waiting, such being Bloomberg, just in case some wrinkle upsets the apple cart and Trump does not win a second term.
Emma Goldman, a Russian activist is reputed to have said - "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal".
The quote has also been attributed to Mark Twain, but such is widely disputed.
The reality here in America, and throughout the planet, is, the masses have little to no influence on their corporate masters.
The illusion of independence and choice is the result of decades of sophisticated perception management techniques deployed by the world's wealthiest using the mainstream media
5
@Stiil Serving and those who replied to you, below:
Forget, even, about roadways. FedEx jets pollute our collective, indivisible air and, likely, water. And for that, we all do pay -- and not just in money but also in health and lives.
5
Only fedex uses aircraft to deliver parcels?
1
@Lord Bob
No, but we haven't heard that USPS, for example, is essentially stealing from all the rest of us. $1.5 billion could go a long way toward mitigating the impacts of fossil fuels or toward providing high-quality actual health care (not just insurance) at lower-costs to everyday human taxpayers -- you know, like almost every adult American citizen and resident except, maybe the current Oval Office tax info evader.
Weird. When I need a new washing machine, I don't get to deduct the cost of it on my taxes, nor do I get a deduction as the value of my car depreciates (even if it does so the moment I drive it off the lot.) Upon the purchase of that car, I will boost the local economy by the gas, car maintenance/repairs, and insurance I must purchase.
The idea that the richer one becomes, the more successful the company, the more taxes they should pay should be basic, unavoidably progressive, and universal.
Not paying *any* taxes should be a crime, not a cause for celebration.
The variety and severity of damage that economic inequality has on society only becomes larger as it increases. Look at the damage the Kochs and Murdochs have done, much less other insanely-wealthy families. Look at Trump.
The political and social power of a billionaire should never be placed in the hands of any single person. It's like watching the movie, "The 5th Element" and evil is at the center.....
9
@SMcStormy You can deduct the costs of your washing machine if you let other people use it to wash their clothes.
FedEx is the worst of all the shipping companies now with the tax evasion I am done with them.
11
Ho hum. Most Americans won't pay much attention to this, particularly if they have Amazon and some others delivering for free. Free delivery is a seduction and works to distract from the greed of the behemoths.
When will the people realize that the Republican Party only represents the fat cats while running the propaganda that they are for the middle class. Under every Republican President, budget deficits increased significantly while the party portrayed the image as budget hawks and tax cuts only helped the wall street crooks. The party represents zero for the people. Fat cats like Fedex, Koch industries support their election propagandas so that the fat cats can continue to loot our nation at the expense of the people. I am sure they will spend at least $500 million so that Trump can get reelected in 2920. What a travesty!
7
Boycott fedex!! Thanks for the info!
7
These corporations are the culprits and are flooding presidential campaigns and elections with more money compared and valued to possessions of our "US Middle Class".
It is a deeply corrupted system, yet we all are bearing it. What good does it do to the public discourse, if corporate leaders evade taxes, yet paying pennies to their employees and workers, masked as the social responsibility. American Oligarchs are no different than their Russian Counterparts, its all about power and control. FedEx is only one example,.. yet we are buying it, aren't we?
2
This is exactly what Andrew Yang is talking about when he describes how we are the ones who have let these corporations skate off paying $0 in taxes. It is a systematic problem and FedEx is just one of many including Amazon, Netflix, and all the other winners in this winner-take-all economy. We need to revamp the system with new mechanisms to capture all this wealth and redistribute it to the shareholders of this country: the citizens. This includes a value added tax, a universal basic income, and more.
5
A corporation didn’t keep a promise? Positively shocking.
3
When CEOs are judged on the single KPI of % increase in stock value, it is patently obvious that they would take any large windfall from a tax cut to buy back company stock and thus raise the stock value. As is also utterly predictable, company boards give the CEO a multimillion dollar bonus for raising the stock value. And thus you have one of the single biggest transfers of wealth to the elite in human history, seriously aggravating problems around inequality while doing so, and also further removing Wall Street from the burden of having any care whatsoever about Main Street.
6
Mitt Romney famously said: "Corporations are people, too, my friend."
"Persons" have moral and ethical obligations. Corporations have no obligation except -- as they see it -- to maximize profits for their shareholders.
This means privatizing profits and sticking "real persons" with corporate losses.
The 14th Amendment was intended to guarantee American citizenship rights for freed slaves. It's been perverted -- gee, thank you, Daniel Webster! -- to make actual persons the wage and tax slaves of corporations.
No, Mitt. Corporations are not persons. And they're certainly not our friend.
5
This is more about Donald Trump than FedEx. When it's this easy for a business behemoth to cut its taxes from billions to zero, why not do it? This is a broken administration in a lot of ways; a system where the rich get wealthier and those just getting by receive nothing for their hard word smacks of corruption. We all need lobbyists.
8
@Peter ERIKSON I agree it's more about Trump than FedEx, but its EVEN MORE about the system than Trump. We are allowing a system that enables vast inequality to run rampant, and Donald Trump is just a symptom of these problems.
5
Fight back! Canvas! The Overton window has finally shifted so that we can point to it everywhere and say, the billionaires are in charge. It’s a class war. It’s oligarchy. Enough! Bernie beats Trump! Let’s really do this!
2
We have the finest government corporations can buy, that is, until their greed destroys it.
All the Republican arguments for lower taxes were that our corporations face such a high marginal rate compared to other countries. They purposely neglected to say that virtually none of them paid that rate. Before the Trump/Republican tax cut, the top corporations paid ~13% federal tax on profit on average. And with this new tax cut fiasco many will pay nothing.
People or businesses that take everything from society and give nothing back in return are a drain on society, sucking up wealth financed by everyone else. This has to be reversed.
Don’t tell me “they create jobs.” Anyone who runs a business NEEDS labor and talented people because without it they have nothing. No business, no profit, nothing.
6
Of course not it is an American company.
Is it not obvious that we need large, structural change (Warren, Sanders) not more of the same?
You are being scammed by the rich and powerful. They get richer, we get poorer. Wake up, Americans!
4
Lowering taxes as a prescription to continuous growth is illusory after contemplation of real per capita changes in most workers disposal incomes after deducting the costs of modern appliances like cell phones and similar technologies.
There were no taxes during the Industrial Revolution (IRE). Instead of taxes, owners of capital paid fealty to the English crown and administration’s apparatchik that operated the stamp system that included trade duties and tariffs. The U.S. tax system's prominent beneficiary was also the military-industrial complex.
“Government expenditure was almost entirely for defense and was therefore essential at the same time as being minimal. There was no central government expenditure for social purposes and taxation, in consequence, was pure, undiluted by controversy about social welfare...”
Cato Journal, Spring 1981, Taxation in England, Pg. 133
The the busy roads leading to wealthy estates and private governments (global industrial giants) continues to be from the U.S. taxation system. The U.S. Tax Rube Goldberg machine hides flows of tax revenues through too much information that obfuscates rather than informs. The fact that a private economy that self-serves through the inner Beltway Lobby Government receives disproportionate tax refunds that is filtered back to the wealthy is proof positive.
The Plebeians are locked-down within invisible gates of an egalitarian Debtor's Ghetto for fear of losing their healthcare insurance and homes.
1
These companies are not going to help pay for our roads, schools, firemen, police, libraries, etc., out of the kindness of their hearts. Like the rest of us they need to be held accountable to their country via taxes. How did so many of our citizens get snowed into believing this oft-repeated lie? How did the so many of the middle class become duped into carrying the load alone? Deflection mostly, I presume.
2
And this is why the uber wealthy are afraid of Elizabeth Warren. She understands the financial system and intends to correct it. Republicans have trumpeted for 40 years that tax cuts for the wealthy will stimulate the economy and trickle its benefits down to the working class. It has never worked and Mr. Smith and FedEx are Exhibit A. They never intended to reinvest or share. The key question is whether the working class, be they in the rust belt, the deep south, the farmland or elsewhere, will see the republicans for the frauds they are and vote Democratic.
5
It would not be unreasonable to argue that "capitalism is of the rich, run by the rich people, and serves for the rich--and it is devoid of compassion and empathy." The notion that our economic system fairly serves the interests of all is a myth we buy into and whenever we question such a myth, some pundits praise the system invoking some of corrupt and nepotist systems and regimes of the world. A note of caution: I am a no supporter of leftist economy. My critique is an outcome of Kant would say "public use of reason."
1
TCJA is about structural change. Should play out at an aggregate level over the next decade. Individual cases in any given year or two will vary as as is the case here. Elementary Watson!
Price they charge for shipments didn’t go down either. I suspect the CEO got huge bonus for increasing his company’s profits.
6
Good point. Thanks.
1
I just sent a small box from SF to Indianapolis and it was $31. I know I haven’t shipped anything via FedEx in ages, but I thought the person at the counter had made a mistake.
As for their $1.5 B windfall-just think if they took $500M and gave it directly to their employees; I bet $499M of that would have gone right back into our economy.
Democrats running for President need to dial down their talk of immigration, “taking away” anything (I’m all for Universal Health Care, but work on it after elected), and talk about how corporations and the wealthy are getting everything and the rest of us are getting nothing. Just make a list of the top 5 things Trump has done (I know, hard to whittle that down) to hurt America and then tie the Republican Party to all of it....they just sat back and said nothing while it all went down.
2
Regarding the calculations used in the graph toward the bottom, shouldn’t the effective tax rate be calculated as income tax expense divided by income before taxes (not net income)?
That’s $1.7 Billion in tax payer debt handed directly to Fed Ex shareholders.
2
Right. And didn't the national debt recently reach its highest level ever?
Somewhere, Ross Perot is having a cow.
2
Trump likes shiny things like tall buildings bearing his name and a high stock market which to him is his success.He brags about the market and takes credit for its rise.His gift of billions of dollars of tax relief to corporations has helped the market remain steady, also the Fed’s policy of lowering interest rates to offset the negative of Trump”s trade wars.Trump has ignored the average worker who draws a salary and must pay for expensive health care and high state taxes.He has also ignored the enormous debt he has saddled us with.His lifetime practice has been to skip out on debt, stiffing those from whom he borrowed.The U.S. cannot skip out on the debt.The story of Midas is one of greed-greed is not good and leaves many struggling while the chosen few prosper.
271
@JANET MICHAEL
I think Mr. Trump is more like typhoid Mary. Anything he touches is ruined but he comes out ahead every time.
14
@JANET MICHAEL Trump does not care for the average American worker. Period.
13
@JANET MICHAEL
Trump stiffed his borrowers and his contractors, but that is not the case When it comes to America's debt.
We the tax payer is going to pay that debt.
I am really not aggressively opposing the debt ( see UK problem with austerity) but the very people who sells you chastity , visits first the closest brothel, in this case GOP is appalling.
10
So let me get this straight. A company whose business is putting thousands of trucks and huge numbers of miles on our crumbling roadways pays absolutely nothing to maintain the roads they are trashing? Brilliant!
2531
@Still Serving Most transportation funding is from fuel taxes not income taxes although this is still a travesty.
50
@Bruce Price
Fuel tax revenues collected at the state level are not hypothecated to transportation funding.
59
@Bruce Price
perhaps gas taxes pay for roadways, but the vast majority of money for infrastructure to our transportation systems comes from state taxes and bond measures
95
Mr. Smith, 75, a former Marine who built FedEx from a small package delivery service into a global logistics giant, was no stranger to pressing for lower taxes. So Fed Ex continues to damage our roads, pollute our skies, make large profits and pay no taxes? What happened to love of country when we have entrepreneurs like this who think that nothing is owed to the country which has given them every opportunity to become wealthy and successful? This story makes me sad how we have created these people who have forgotten their civic responsibility to create a more fair world for everyone.
337
@Bella he found $ and love of country became a back seat issue. Money is the root of all evil... or greed.
16
@Bella He never had any convictions, apparently. The Country is getting a lesson in our American values. And whether we will have them going forward or not.
11
We didn’t “create these people.” They have always existed and always will. What we did create, and continue to allow, is a system that rewards their bad behavior (greed). We can tune the system to filter out this pathology and make for a more equitable and pleasant experience for all of us.
14
They don't contribute to our society and yet they benifit from what we contribute. They don't pay taxes and yet they corrupt our politics. Who are they? The corporations and the rich. Welcome to corporate fascism, where they will wrap themselves in the flag, use religion, uneducate us and offer us a tiny piece of bread and plenty of circus. That way we are distracted, dumb, and too preoccupied with survival while they plunder .
In god we trust...
247
@arm19 ' uneducate us ' is so correct.
6
@arm19 "we are distracted, dumb, and too occupied with survival" That was evident from the rest of your post. Now go vote for Bernie so the Donald wins in 2020.
@arm19 "They don't contribute to our society" What a bizarre commie take on corporations. The corporation is one of the great inventions of Western civilization and one of the reasons the West and, in particular, the United States prospered mightily. You wouldn't last five minutes without the products produced by corporations, and if it weren't for corporations, most of those products wouldn't exist at a price the common citizen could afford or wouldn't exist at all. Yeah, let's go back to living in caves.
2
Tell me why progressive income tax rates on the incomes of corporate management as were imposed during the WWII have not been imposed to stabilize a national debt growing at $4 for every $1 of economic growth. Corporations flush the wealth of the our nation up the income scale and dump the debt on the rest of us. Will New York's Senators to the US Congress assure us our nation is doing just fine or tell us that this rip off must and will stop.
5
So glad our corporate overlords saved some cash. I’m sure our school system, infrastructure, veterans, and healthcare system doesn’t need that money anyways.
1453
Overlords don't need happy healthy poorly educated workers any more. They only need a few programmers and technicians to keep the automation going
29
@Exhausted - Completely agree with you, since corporations don't "pay taxes"; they merely serve as conduits, collecting tax monies from their customers which have been priced into the goods/services corporations sell, and then forward those collected taxes to government entities.
The war on taxes by corporations and the ultra-wealthy is just another manifestation of Grover Norquist's effort to starve government (we, the people) of revenues, and small enough "to drown in the bath tub", so that regulating/policing corporations and the ultra-wealthy is more difficult.
Amazing this story doesn't mention that where the FedEx chairman really benefited from the tax cuts was personally, since he's one of the 621 U.S. Billionaires in the 1/10th of the top 1% strata.
20
He was a former Marine. So what?
3
My taxes went up because my medical expenses were capped at $10,000. I incur far more on a yearly basis. It's good to see that my contribution to the national tax situation helps to give upstarts and new-kids-on-the-block like these FedEx guys to get a foothold in the business world and maybe somehow succeed.
Good luck, guys. I think you have a future in this bid'ness. I'm happy I could part of your boot-strap process.
If you need anything else, just tax me.
5
What's the big surprise when has the trickle down ever worked. Yet, give it a few years with another Republican and the same bill of goods will win approval. Yes, I was shocked when a FedEx guy who delivered something told me he was an independent. So, is the guy who delivers the newspaper. With all the tax cut money who is cooking the books that these corporations are not making billions. Oh, right Kraft/Heinz, Mattel, and others have been cooking the books. They need more tax cuts. I was stiffed by UPS and they claimed they would make it right well six months later, emails, package of material sent to the head office and the store and ZIP. Their story is now that these stories are not owned by them since they are farnchised so it has nothing to do with them. No, they just suck the money out. Funny no more stories about those great raises they gave the employees. Watch out now for the FAA which appears to be ready to knuckle under to Boeing in the Super Max case. Hey, it hurts their share price and we do know they would never put an unsafe aircraft in the air oh, right they did. Three guesses when the bills come in for all the wonderful tax cuts as the deficit and debt go through the ceiling who will pay? Not them that is for sure. By the way I won't ever use UPS again. Their word is menaingless. Jim Trautman
3
Well, there’s an easy fix: A public boycott. Let’s all use UPS! No need for moral outrage debates. See how long that lasts.
5
Better yet, the United States Postal Service (they do offer overnight delivery; not sure about same-day).
3
@Average Jane Doe Well said!
2
$1.5 billion would buy a whole lot of health care.
7
Remember the Times Bestseller, Tailspin? As noted by Tax Guy and others below; corporations have more say in governance, more rights and more protection against criminal activity, than citizens. Welcome to the 21st century’s new class of robber barons. Corporations get tax breaks, buy back outside stock, which was n turn inflates its value and give stockholders dividends. In return, CEO’s and minions, receive bonuses, stock options, etc. all at taxpayer expense. This is what we’re told will make America “great again”. If you agree with this then you would agree that we also made China and some poor Middle East oil countries “great” as will.
Republicans inflate the positive effects that tax breaks have on our economy, our society, and our national debt.
Democrats underplay the number of unauthorized immigrants in our country, and the negative impacts they are having on our economy, our society, and on our national debt.
We, the public, need real numbers and independent, objective analysis.
2
These tax cuts should be viewed as temporary if Democrats take over the Senate and the White House. The Federal government needs Fedex's $1.5 Billion in taxes. All companies should pay their fair share the same way regular tax payers do. We can only hope that the American public will finally take a stand against excessive corporate wealth and understand that taxes keep the US from being dependent on countries like China and Russia. We can't fund our government on debt and mortgage the future of the next generation for temporary wealth.
3
This analysis reminds of a joke one of my grad school accounting professors used to tell.
Company president to the chief bean counter on the last day of the year (can be month, etc as well) - what's our profit going to be?
Chief bean counter - what do you want it to be?
The meaning may not be obvious to some. When it comes to financial analysis there is very little etched in stone which can be irrefutably challenged. Even GAAP, which supposedly levels the playing field, has a lot of grey areas.
One can be sure of one thing, the NYT will never present a level headed analysis of anything done by the Republicans. The article notably ignores the obvious fact that pensions, as well as personal savings, plans across the country invest in stocks and bonds of corporate America. So increase in stock prices and dividends is a very good thing.
This should be in the Op Ed section. Just like any other opinion piece it spews forth from a certain part of the human anatomy. It's stench is somewhat comforting and familiar to the one doing the spewing, and their supporters, and generally considered offensive by the rest.
Now on the question of the legislation itself. It just cements the fact that no one, and I mean NO ONE, who is elected in Washington or anywhere else cares about debt and deficits anymore. Just as long as they can get elected to please their supporters. To be sure there's always a looser in something like this. And it's our country.
1
This is why we need to dismantle and rebuild everything. Moderate dems wont be getting my vote.
5
Then the Republicans will still have sway. Is that the way you want it? Change is incremental. Do your part.
3
@Job
Oh? So you think all those previous efforts at Socialism/Communism weren't done correctly but you know the "right" way which will work?
Bad news. These ideas have been going for centuries. And mankind keeps on making the same mistakes. Why? Because they can't learn the lesson that Socialism is completely at odds with how our actual behavior is governed.
1
This is why people get so angry - however unlike the people in other nations like Chile who see wealth hoard by the corporate elites, Americans for some reason do not take to the streets. These take breaks ultimately mean the taxpayers are paying for all these "investments" because the tax expenditures contributed to the massive explosion in our deficit. The economy is not growing rapidly enough to offset these gifts to the corporate and wealthy elites. Therefore, the GOP almost immediately starting screaming that SS, Medicare and other social safety net programs had to be drastically scaled back. When I see corporations making billions and paying NOTHING something is wrong. A wage earner or retiree cannot avoid paying their taxes - and we don't have legions of accountants and attorneys and lobbyists making sure we avoid paying. It's disgusting.
16
@dairyfarmersdaughter
Yes. Bernie's "political revolution" is definitely in order. Warren's "revival" is clearly a sell out. (Actually, it was not so clear since she only signaled this behind closed doors.)
3
“FedEx President Raj Subramaniam said Using retailers like Dollar General and Walgreens to house pickup and drop-off services and bringing packages handled by the U.S. Postal Service for the last mile into FedEx’s network will help improve profitability, executives said.” The Tennessean, June 17, 2019.
So FedEx gets all the cushy routes from Congress then reduces it’s own exposure to competition by piggybacking on the hard work done by USPS. Every time a FedEx truck passes by while on my daily walk, and after I recover from being nearly run over, I say to myself, ‘Oh well, must try to remember that they own the road.’
3
Lower my taxes to $0 and I promise to invest in capital improvements to my home (new roof and windows, a security system, automatic garage door), new equipment purchases (riding lawnmower, new kitchen and laundry appliances, a new HVAC system, computers and cell phones) and pay my babysitter higher wages plus a Christmas bonus. Multiply that "investment" in me by millions of others and there's no doubt FedEx, UPS and every other corporation in America would be rolling in profits and couldn't hire people fast enough.
18
“Trump’s tax cut was even smaller than two tax cuts passed by Congress under President Barack Obama. We’re sure that must be a source of irritation. In fact, Trump’s tax cut would even fall behind Obama’s tax cuts when measured by inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.”
- Washington Post
2
AND, they are set up expire, don’t forget.
1
@C A Simpson
So, Nancy should tell the voters she will allow those cuts to expire.
The US economy is a bright spot among major economies. For good reason, which starts with Trump's pro-business policies.
10
@AACNY Think it's gonna be FedEx who pays Trump's record deficit? Who's going to pay the taxes needed to repair our failing infrastructure? How odd watching folks like you cheer on that those who benefit the most should not pay anything to the country that made them very wealthy and successful...and cheering the burdens falling onto themselves, their children and grandchildren instead. Do you also pay for your neighbors landscaping so he can enjoy a beautiful yard? Wee-ahd.
50
@AACNY Mr Trump started with an economy with moderate but constant growth ... the economy has continued on this path without any major change due to Mr Trumps policies ... but shuffling money, he succeeded in piling a huge debt onto the country.
And FedEx is a good example for the Trump/GOP hypocrisy: To run their business successfully they need INFRASTRUCTURE ... and who is paying for this? Definitely not their contributions to the collected taxes.
46
@AACNY
The US economy is good because of Trump's policies?? Next you'll be believing that he's winning trade wars, or the Korean peninsula is nuke-free, or that the Kurds wanted US troops to leave, or that he didn't separate kids from their parents, or that Putin doesn't have anything on him, or that he never cheated on his wife.
If you bothered checking facts (no, I don't mean the Enquirer or Breitbart), you'd notice that;
a) the economy was improving for 5 years before Trump got in but has started turning the other way,
b) the bump from the tax bill ran out after about 6 months, yet
c) the $trillion-plus increase per year in national debt is forecast to get worse, and he has no plan for how to deal with it.
It's unfortunate when someone who reads actual news reported by those who check their facts, can only respond with Trump-blather.
67
I always give a friendly wave to the FedEx driver when they drop off my packages but now that the company is the villain do I spit at them? I don’t know what America’s real problem is but I’m tired of being to made to feel I need to take it out on someone as is the personified case all the time when I read terms like “Trump administration.” I’m good with just cursing God as there’s no eyes there to look into as I do.
@John Doe Well, for some people, Trump is their God. You can curse Trump, just don't spit on him. I'd recommend to keep waving to the FedEx driver. If your in Johnstown, Pa, still a nice little town, don't expect help from this administration or the CEO of FedEx.
This fraudulent tax cut should have REQUIRED companies to do something productive with the money, but that would have been too fair.
What happens next to this unsustainable gifting? Democrats get into office and are required to reinstate the tax, thus making them look like villains.
6
If 20 percent corporate tax rate is “a mighty fine Christmas gift,” then a 0 percent rate should be a mighty fine crime!
Indeed, FedEx and UPS joining forces to push for lower taxes sounds like a conspiracy or at the very least collusion between two monopolistic giants - no wonder trump was also attacking the US Post Office (not just Amazon) at the time.
This makes FedEx one of the largest freeloaders of our infrastructure they do not pay for and exploit for tax free profit - that the rest of us pay for. Free shipping isn't the game changer - free taxes is! Indeed, the secret to wealth in America is NOT PAYING TAXES! Let everyone else pay them.
Hey red states, is that what you're for? Your taxes aren't going to pay for your neighbor's food stamps - it's going to pay for your neighborhood FedEx's taxes - ALL of their taxes.
Yet another billionaire or billionaire company crying us a river over how unfair everyone who actually has to pay MORE taxes to cover their shortfall is.
So this is American style free enterprise? Free markets? Where everything for the richest and most powerful companies and plutocrats is free? How is that at all sustainable?
In a capitalistic market based society where cutting costs is everything, it is long past due to rid ourselves of the FAT and highest COSTS TO SOCIETY at the top. Indeed, the costs aren't at the bottom where they repeatedly cut into the bone - the waste, fraud and abuse - the highest costs - have always stunk at the tippy-top.
4
I’m just a lowly retired tax payer and I knew this was a give away to the rich. Trickledown 2.0!
5
Best example of inequality!
5
WAPO reports Amazon paid no federal taxes - and instead received a rebate:
“Amazon, the e-commerce giant helmed by the world’s richest man, paid no federal taxes on profit of $11.2 billion last year, according to an analysis of the company’s corporate filings by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a progressive think tank.
Thanks to a variety of tax credits and a significant tax break available on pay handed out in the form of company stock, Amazon actually received a federal tax rebate of $129 million last year, giving it an effective federal tax rate of roughly -1 percent.
It is the second year in a row the company has enjoyed a negative federal tax rate on a multibillion dollar profit. That would place the company’s effective federal tax rate below the rate paid by the poorest 20 percent of American households, which had an effective federal tax rate of 1.5 percent in 2015, according to the Tax Policy Center.”
- WAPO
2
And it was said before the 2016 election that a 'businessman' would be the ideal president. Well, look what this 'corrupt businessman' has wrought upon our country! Shameful!!! He hasn't the slightest grip on our economy!
5
The cynicism and greed of Republican donors is stunning, as is the perennial gullibility of middle class and working class people who vote for them.
Debt for your children, poisoned environment, more natural disasters, cuts to education and scientific research. Apparently all worth it if you can have guns in schools, force women to give birth to unwanted children (even if they were raped), rave in public about Jesus and MAGA, and feel free to disrespect immigrants (including lawful ones and combat veterans) and non-whites Americans.
Hard to believe, tragic but true.
7
After reading a story like this, is it any wonder why people cheat on their taxes or worse yet, hire a smart lawyer so they do not have to pay much, if anything, at all?
Oh, excuse me Mr. President, I wasn't necessarily pointing that question in your direction, but now that it's been brought up, why the reluctance and refusal to share those tax returns?
Since when isn't what's good for the goose, not good for the gander?
I'm just saying . . .
6
Shareholders and employees pay taxes. Increased dividends and other reinvestment plus increased hiring will not shortchange the US Treasury either in the immediate or long term.
2
I'm confused. In 2017, FedEx owed 1.5 billion in taxes. In 2018 it owed nothing. but then the article goes on to say that FedEx paid 2 billion in total federal income taxes over the past 10 years. Does that mean that they only owed 500 million between 2008 and 2018 EXCEPT in 2017, where they owed 1.5 billion?
The tax rate of 21% is still one of the highest in the world. Even Canada is at 12%. So where does the issue really lie? It's not the tax rate, IT IS THE LOOPHOLES that drive what a company pays. The tax cut truly helped a lot of small businesses, but this only focuses on the big companies, and it glosses over the fact that many made large investments and could deduct them in the year those investments were made - 2018.
I agree that large profitable corporations need to pay more in taxes, but do not agree that what they pay is tied to the tax rate. 21% if more than fair, if the IRS via Congress would eliminate the many write-offs, subsidies, and other loopholes they've built in over the last 30 years. That is where the focus should be.
3
I have never once lost a job due to government regulations. I have never based my investments solely on the potential for taxes I might pay.
Why do people so willingly conclude that if the government regulates and taxes, then they will fail?
1
It takes about 160,000 working middle class families paying $10K taxes per year to cover the cost of just one of Trump mc connell's Gop corporate faithful.
8
I get so sick and tired of profitable companies telling me how they are trying to help the environment, how they encourage diversity, and how they support fair labor practices,... and then they pay nothing in taxes.
So Amazon, Netflix, Chevron, Eli Lilly, Halliburton, IBM, Salesforce, FedEx, and the rest of you that have paid no taxes,... don’t talk to us about anything that you claim to do to help us,... just do your civic duty and pay your taxes. Follow my example, not Donald Trump’s or Jared Kushner’s.
6
I would really like to see which of our democratic candidates are funded by FedEx - or other corporate free-loaders, for that matter. I think this would shrink the candidate pool to just two candidates who would SERIOUSLY try to change this legal corruption, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard. The others, despite their campaign rhetoric and proposals, would likely just rearrange those deck chairs. Elizabeth Warren, who has limited her corporate donors only AFTER amassing tens of millions from them in her faux-senate campaign and early presidential campaign, went on to 'signal' to the corporate establishment about three months ago that she's all about "revival", rather than revolution (that seems to have coincided with the beginning of positive press from corporate media, like NYT).
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/26/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-democrats.html
1
Just one catastrophe after another after another from Robin Hood Trump and his Merry Men. They rob from poor and middle-class Americans and give to the ultra-rich, many who live overseas and aren’t American citizens; after taking their substantial cut, of course.
Robin Hood Trump and his Merry Men shielded, in turn, by an odd cohort of enablers and accomplices, many addressed by honorific titles. “Congressman” or -woman, “Governor”, ”Ambassador”, “Senator”, “Secretary of {fill-in-the-blank} although many behave just like the grifters and fixers feeding at Trump’s trough. And where does “corporate responsibility”, that nebulosity, fit in all this? Nowhere. Their battlecry is “get it while you can!”, one reason why Federal Express paid $0 tax on truly enormous income. Their motto might as well be “Devil take the hindmost!”.
Were the federal government a seagoing vessel most would yell “we’re sinking!”, because we are. Yet Republicans controlling half of Congress say nothing, affect disinterest, turn blind eyes towards the fiscal crisis looming dead ahead, refuse to lift a finger to prevent it. It’s criminal — first magnitude dereliction of duty. Meanwhile, Robin Hood proposes yet another unaffordable tax cut in 2020; an obvious bribe to middle-class voters from a failed businessman who regards bribery and extortion as useful tools to close deals and perfectly acceptable for being that. Why he doesn’t give their illegality and immorality a second thought.
2
When profit making ventures pay no tax they are exploiting consumers, not making honest profit.
Tax the rich or descend into impoverished fascism. Those are the choices.
6
I believe Trump pays less taxes than a coal miner, and waiters and waitresse.
So with the billion they saved do they pay male and female drivers on the same level! Or do you just buy their stock! Just who gets the billion!, since they don’t pay taxes.
1
Paul Krugman has warned that Republicans, are moving the US to the tax logic of the French Ancient Royal system and away from the Hamiltonian architecture described in White House Burning (my summary http://www.robsstrategystudio.org/awfcasnd.htm). This is a powerful example
2
I’ve been boycotting UPS since they were giving NRA discounts.
I guess I’ll switch my boycott now...
1
I love it!!! We, the American people, deserve this!! Let the richer get richer and the poor and working class fall further behind. It is the logical, end result, when you give Republicans control of all branches of government. And the debt keeps growing to the tune of a $1 trillion per year.
But, her email server!!! Hillary's email server!!! We could never trust her with confidential information. So let's put Trump in office, and give him both chambers of congress. And the courts.
Like I said, we totally deserve this! I hope the Chairman and CEO of Fed Ex and its investors are able to enjoy the benefits of this. While me and my children pay the debt accruing from these irresonsible tax cuts, and have to confront the damage this President and the Republicans have done to this country, for decades!
4
@jkdbgky
Would you not wager that there was something regarding corporate corruption among all those emails from her private server that she had destroyed? The Freedom of Information Act was hard won (see Watergate). Do you not think that the Clintons were also in deep with the corporate establishment, as were the Bushes? Trump actually did NOT have anywhere near the corporate backers for his campaign that Hillary had. Though he hasn't done much or anything to reign in corporate corruption, Trump did not create it. Attributing it all to him is what corporate establishment (like NYT) wants us to do.
1
After reading a story like this, is it any wonder why people cheat on their taxes or worse yet, hire a smart lawyer to they don't have to pay much, if anything, at all?
Oh, excuse me Mr. President, I wasn't necessarily pointing that question in your direction, but now that it's been brought up, why the reluctance and refusal to share those tax returns?
Since when isn't what's good for the goose, good for the gander?
I'm just saying . . .
2
That "effective" tax rate of 18% is actually based on accounting profits. If you look at actual cash taxes paid, the rate is somewhere between 5% and 10% on average for all companies. Many pay no actual taxes.
American corporates are takers, big-time.
4
We should not hinder success. Would you rather take money from the most successful, intelligent people and give it to the poorest in society so they might have a slim chance of achieving a middle class lifestyle? Or would you rather let the most successful and intelligent people keep the money they earned, and reap the reward in potential breakthroughs in technology and commerce? Keep in mind this will start a virtuous cycle that will attract more and more successful people. Helping poor people to make yourself and them feel good would ultimately lead to the demise of this country. If people can't help themselves, throwing money at them won't make them better people.
1
@Auxley Auxley from Earth; you are a part of the Big Business/Republican Mantra. 1% get richer;rest of us pay off the Huge Deficit Trump/Republicans made. Vote Republican if you want to spend the rest of your life making rich people richer. Ray Sipe from Florida
5
@Ray Sipe
Ray, maybe you are part of the Big Business/Democrat mantra. 10% get richer; the rest of us support a corporate establishment that is protected by BOTH political parties.
@Auxley
You assume the richest are the most successful & intelligent, whereas in our system most of them are only successful at ripping off the productivity of others. Being the biggest thief may be "successful & intelligent" in your mind, but it doesn't work for most of us.
1
And I love how the rich corporate snowflakes immediately cry "class warfare!" when Americans insisted they contribute more to society.
7
Everything is a fraud and a scam circus circa 2019
2
Is there anyone surprised by this?
Big hoopla after the tax bill passed with one-time bonuses by some companies and then quickly back to business as usual - grab all the profits and screw the workers and the country. It’s how Trump operated his entire adult life. Probably how his father operated and how Papa Trump made the millions Donny inherited.
Corporations have been deemed “persons” in so far as political contributions so we’ll see tons of corporate money pouring into Republican coffers. BUT Corporations cannot vote —- yet. We real persons better wise up and vote Democratic - up and down the ballot. I don’t think Democrats are angels but they are 1,000 fold better than Republicans.
1
Only NYT commenters or at least some of them think low busines taxes are bad. Taxes are overhead and get added to the price of every gallon of milk, loaf of bread, pair of shoes, etc...
Additionally unearned income should get taxed at favorable rates compared to earned income. Reward people for preparing for their old age so they are not a burden on others.
2
I worked for this company in the 1980s just about the time their main hub started to handle above 1M packages a night and if I hadn't been in college it would have been a good job but since it was 3.5 hrs a night starting at 11:30 PM it nearly ruined my college career.
It paid well though and I was able to get out of Tennessee after working there for several years. I was a zombie though, as were the rest of the night shift.
It was also the year FedEx invested in faxes via satellite and lost a their shirt. Nobody trusted faxes then and the quality of the fax was pretty poor. No bonuses that year.
Zoom to 2012 and the job I had that paid nearly $19/hr in 1984 paid less than $10 plus it was a split shift which meant being taken advantage of in every sense.
I got out of Tennessee for the last time!
In the 80s this company meant a chance to get ahead but now it's keeping employees under their thumb with little chance to advance. Most employees drank too much since the noise of the hub and the hours ruined their sleep cycles. The original crew was mostly there in the 80s and they looked twenty years older than they actually were.
Who will pay for the retirement and health care for those who work at jobs like that for most of their lives? Not Fred Smith, that's for sure!
5
While pushing up the budget deficit to close to $1 trillion and robbing the nation of crucial resources to invest infrastructure-roads, bridges, airports, air traffic control that Federal Express and UPS depend on, and which engineers say is now a $2 trillion repair bill, let’s recall how Republicans blocked Democrats from even participating in writing the 2017 tax bill.
12
And if taxes are again raised, I’m sure FedEx will think of moving it’s HQ outside the US, where it can continue paying low or no taxes and just operate/deliver packages in the US.
3
Lucky ducky. The rest of us will be paying the price for the ridiculous tax cuts for a very long time. But wasn’t that the point to begin with?
6
And let’s not forget the local tax breaks FedEX enjoys.
In fact, Tennessee just recently rewarded FedEX with the Tennessee State House advanced a bill that could mean $21 million in state and local tax breaks (including sales tax!) for a multiyear hub modernization.
Wonder how big FedEX would be without the benefits our tax dollars provide?
8
This is socialism, corporate socialism. The U.S. is 21 trillion in debt. Republicans complain about social welfare programs and Obama Care. Tax payers are subsidizing many corporations like Fed Ex. The tax breaks given to the wealthy are he same thing its a government subsidy. Its absolutely a form of socialism.
14
You are spot on. I only wish the Dems would remind everyone of that rather than tear each other down
2
These companies need to pay federal taxes if they want to drive on our highways and land at our airports. It’s only fair they pay to build and maintain these things.
13
Anybody think that these companies knew all along that they never expected to use their tax windfall for their employees or reinvestment?
Maybe for another house or a new yacht but for employees? Before getting the tax windfall they are suddenly speaking about the good of the country after getting it, no so much.
Makes you wonder if we are going to lose the vibrancy and heart of the country just for a new yacht for Mr. Ceo or a new house for Ms. Ceo.
2
Elizabeth Warren isn’t talking about raising taxes to reduce the trillion Dollar a year deficit. She is talking about raising taxes to pay for new stuff.
3
This just in from Mark Twain!
"We have the best government that money can buy."
11
Economics 101.
Companies exist to sell a product or provide a service to make money.
Update airplanes, fine. But if the number of package deliveries stays the same, the future capital expenditures have been speeded, with no great effect on the number of employees.
A new auto plant so fewer employees are needed and it is easier to switch lines, fine. Again, a one time accelerated event. Remember the Carrier plant that closed 6 months after Trump bragged about it?
Real investment with long term possibilities are things like abstract thinking or renewable energy and improved recycling and compost.
Which Trump hates.
Maybe some repaired bridges? Nah ...
7
Just happy that on my measly salary, by forgoing a nice vacation, decent health insurance, and a healthy contribution to my 401k, I have the money to pay my taxes and help FedEx be all that it can be.
Making America Great Again for the 1%.
25
An AEI economist declaring that the '17 tax fraud didn't provide "the big response that many people expected" is akin to "The Great Divider" Trump declaring that his frequently invoked "many people" were wrong (tho our national fraud would never admit he was wrong). We have one party totally off the moral and intellectual rails passing a tax bill that's good only for a few and not for the common good, unable to declare in proper public spirit that taxes are the price we pay for our freedoms. The other party can't ostensibly out them for much of their corruption and find an electorate that realizes what a fraud Republican leaders are.
I never appreciated why the idea of an alternative minimum tax lost its luster. Why doesn't the public good mandate that corporations pay a minimum of say 15% of its profits--or even sales--to pay the price for our freedoms? My guess is that is has something to do with rich Dems who don't like the whole concept of alternative mins, but it would save corps like FedEx much in tax accountant expense--and perhaps a considerable tax hike, if Dems ever succeed in returning to power in force--if they had to pay the government we depend upon for the services we need enuf to provide those services.
It doesn't take demonization of corporations like what the Sanders/Warren wing of the Dems offers to push such an idea forward, does it?
1
Wow!!! Using FedEx to support the position that the Trump tax cuts have not resulted in capital spending by FedEx contrary to what was advertised is ludicrous!
Why is there no mention of the rapidly changing competitive environment in this industry since the tax cuts took effect that have resulted in continuous downward projections for FedEx revenues and profits this year and excess plant capacity for FedEx, which will affect their capital purchases in the near term?? The FedEx stock price has taken a beating this year!!!! This has been well reported in the business press. The primary challenge now for FedEx is to keep the planes and trucks it now has hauling enough cargo and not shrink rather than focusing on buying new equipment.
Meanwhile, Amazon is investing more capital by building it’s own air fleet and ground delivery systems that now competes directly with FedEx and which is expected to take on a larger share of the next day delivery market in the foreseeable future.
The point is that In the aggregate, more capital is being invested in this industry since the Trump tax cuts took effect.
2
One of an incredible minority of intelligent posts. Thanks for your contribution.
1
So we should applaud monopoly concentration in the hands of Amazon?
1
@Jim last I checked if someone (or some company) is really really good at doing something, they should be rewarded for it. Why punish Amazon for getting better and better at what they do, which also equates to what people want? I for one really enjoy my 1 day shipping.
1
How can one blame FedEx? I surely don't. With President Trump's exploitation of power to the extreme, he has opened the door for nearly all large corporations to do the same. It reminds me of an insurance company's primary goal (regardless of what is "insured"): Do not pay off a claim until backed into a corner. Surely President Trump is well aware of all this. "Our" present government is at a virtual standstill, due to Congress voting along nearly total partisan lines, superpacs selling whatever it is they want, and ubiquitous gerrymandering. In other words, "our" federal government is in virtual gridlock. My emphasis on the word "our" is of the utmost importance. Unfortunately, many of the same people we voted into office have taken this privilege, this honor, and turned it into abusive power. As such, apathy amongst voters is (understandably) very high. Many citizens either look away or ignore it. We have a great privilege: To vote, and too many people have forgetten. In the entire history of the USA, only two Presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives, only to be pardoned by the Senate: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Richard Nixon resigned before being fully impeached. For only the second time in US history, hearings for the impeachment of the president are shown live on TV. It is hard to calculate how many, as today we have streaming, C-Span, etc. Most importantly, we voted them into office. We can vote them out of office, as well.
5
So Fed Ex says "the law’s intention to help grow G.D.P., create jobs and increase wages.” So show us where THEY created jobs and where THEIR employees wages went up. Pretty simple data to show. Two years is long enough to see changes in those two metrics. And show me where in the law it said the purpose of the law was to encourage stock buybacks and shareholder dividends. It doesn't. It always was a tax cut for corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us.
10
This is where 40 years of Republican lies have led us:
A corporation that pays nothing to use roads, airports, and our much-vaunted legal system.
Government is the problem - when it's controlled by Republicans.
15
Let’s scrap the tax code entirely in favor of a flat tax on all gross receipts. Everyone pays their fair share and only one page tax forms. Any takers?
12
didn't pay any taxes? how is that not wrong?
5
@frankly 32
According to the stable genius it’s smart not to pay taxes therefore it is not wrong.
1
@frankly 32
In the words of our president on not having paid any federal income tax,
"That makes me smart."
[Trump-Clinton debate September 26 2016]
So there you have it.
And Republicans have been trying to eliminate the USPS in favor of private courier firms. Hmm. I wonder why?
15
@William O, Beeman
USPS has become a taxpayer front for a taxpayer supported FedEx.
The U.S. Postal Service is pleased to execute a four year renewal to extend the Air Cargo Network (ACN) contract with FedEx through September 29, 2024. The competitively awarded contract began October 1, 2013, and provides domestic air transportation for U.S. Mail, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express. This contract modification aligns capacity with Postal demand, provides operational flexibility and service enhancements, and results in reduced costs for the Postal Service. FedEx is the largest provider of air transportation capacity to the Postal Service. The Postal Service and FedEx have had a longstanding business relationship since 2001.
I understand that these companies make investments and need to do that to keep growing and hiring people. But why do they get a free ride and I have to pay 30% tax on my income? They're not paying their fair share and that's all I ask of them to do. There are no free rides, pay your share!!!
17
@Marge Keller
You raise valid points, and it’s worth remembering that the idea of lowering corporate taxes to spur investment in their own companies has been used every time the GOP comes to power. The results have always been the same, they line their own and their shareholders with the very money they claim they will invest in their own companies. And no jobs are created, tax revenues fall, and the deductions you, and I get, have a sunset date. Meaning, sooner, rather than later, more of your net income will be available for taxation. In the 1980s during Reagan’s first term, as republicans always do, they roll back regulations that they deem job, killers, or inhibit companies from being competitive, etc. That statement is as untrue today, as it was in Reagan’s day, and would be called “Voodoo Economics” “Trickledown” or “Supply side” economics, labor has yet to benefit.
The regulations that they always roll back are the ones designed to protect the public from corporate greed. One of the regulations that they rolled back was the SEC regulation that bared publicly traded corporations from buying back their own stock, then they added the “safe harbor” rule to “prevent insider trading” but it doesn’t prevent anything. Trump even made sure that there was a tax break just for his ilk, real estate, “opportunity zones” as reported by The NY Times. This is worth reading.
https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/LAZONICK_William_Profits-without-Prosperity-20140406.pdf
7
I am not an Elizabeth Warren fan, but this article gives her "corporate America is greedy" rants some credence. The Reagan gov-is-the-problem doctrine, coupled with his sham trickle down economic hooey that the Republicans have embraced, has given us huge income disparity. We must obliterate this reign of middle class economic terror and vote Blue, no matter who, come 2020.
9
Articles like this makes me want to vote for Elizabeth Warren. Corporate America is consumed by greed.
15
A resounding "duh." This is why the stock market has been rising. But real wages are not rising.
14
Welp. Ok. I’m tired of seeing the Fed Ex truck using the roads in my neighborhood. So I’m going to do my part and choose USPS (not UPS either) every time from here on out. I’m tired of this parasitism.
11
@Matthew,
Really, is that because you think they paid taxes too, they didn’t.
www.itep.org
The Republicans will push “trickle down” economics every time they are in power. Remember this at the polls!
5
Money and power. The more you have, the less responsible you are for having it.
6
I wonder why the stock market rises whenjobs are lost and corporate profits rise
3
WHAT?? Corporations can't be trusted to do the right thing?
4
For the working class it's taxation without representation.
6
Typical lying corporation. No surprise Fed Ex supports Trump.
9
So much winning. Gotta head to my second job soon. What a great country to be 65 in.....
17
So.....you weren't planning ahead when you were young, Trumps been power 3 years-ish, he certainly did not have anything to do with your 401k contributions either tanking or taking off. Whose fault is that?
@BorisRoberts Well, Boris, let me explain to you how a 401(k), aka, an individual account plan works. The employee contributes his own tax-deductible contribution which the employer typically matches at 3% and then, unlike in DB plans, the employer's obligation is over and the output is dependent on investment experience, which means that when the market tanked in 2008, the 401(k) of a 55 year old (the age of the above poster at the time of the crash), the 401(k) of people who had made responsible investment decisions (e.g., ETFs) was obliterated. Since blue chip stocks tanked in 2008, this outcome for most 401(k) accounts was pretty much independent of whether you made prudent investment decisions or not. Check mate.
1
I will be boycotting FedEx.
7
@Chris Hammer
FedEx is in bed with the usps. Boycotting will wind up hurting the “contractor” drivers. Better to boycott twitter!
The U.S. Postal Service is pleased to execute a four year renewal to extend the Air Cargo Network (ACN) contract with FedEx through September 29, 2024. The competitively awarded contract began October 1, 2013, and provides domestic air transportation for U.S. Mail, Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express. This contract modification aligns capacity with Postal demand, provides operational flexibility and service enhancements, and results in reduced costs for the Postal Service. FedEx is the largest provider of air transportation capacity to the Postal Service. The Postal Service and FedEx have had a longstanding business relationship since 2001.
I hate this country. It’s like I’m living in some sci-fi dystopian novel. These fat cats need to fall hard. I think the French had it about right in 1789.
13
@Jay
The country is its people. They are the victims of your dystopian novel. Don't blame them for it. Personally, I prefer to blame the corporate establishment. The ones who Elizabeth Warren made clear to that she is all about "revival", not revolution. The ones who convince America's professional class that their fellow Americans in flyover country are abominations, as is Donald Trump. They divide and they conquer. Unfortunately, we let our news sources provide us with carefully selected, divisive views that reinforce our prejudices that they helped establish.
1
Hate. Yeah, that will improve your life. Illegal aliens are coming here in droves, the American Dream is alive and well for them. For me also, I may not be rolling in dough and lighting cigars with $100 bills, but I'm still moving forward as fast as I can pedal. The illegal aliens are going to succeed, is there any doubt about that? Yet we have native born making all these excuses why they aren't making it. Because they're being held back, they're being oppressed, because they're being victimized by substandard teachers, that the tests they have to take are racist because they're too difficult etc., etc. Every person I know, no matter their ethnicity, that put out the effort, and there are no secrets to their success, made it. You can blame the Republicans, Democrats, White Supremists, your uncle that molested you 50 years ago, your parents, your teachers, or anyone else, but the people that made it, didn't sit around blaming others for their lack of forward motion, they made it happen.
@BorisRoberts Why is it always the mediocre who make this sort of callous, delusional assertion that talent + hard work guarantees financial success? Is it because they are simply too stupid to understand that whatever (typically modest) measure of success they enjoy is also the result of dumb luck? Even if we did live in a perfect meritocracy, that would not negate the fact that the allocation of talent is based on two variables: (1) genetics and (2) environment. Notably, neither of these can be earned through hard work. You don't choose your IQ or your parents. One role that taxes play, as a mechanism for redistributing wealth, is to actually to mitigate the influence of the luck and promote a more meritocratic system. Where can I find your linkedin profile so that I can evaluate your success? You are the reason why I screen prospective employees for character and critical thinking. I would give you a "D" on both counts and have an employee show you the door.
2
It's the hollowing of everything because of the power the corporation has attained. not only as a business entity but as a living being that cannot be reasoned with because there is no nothing there except greed.
As long as we (including our beloved corporations(apple and the rest))don't pay our fair share in this paradigm we will implode into the world of king trump and the corporation overlords. Hi facebook, Alexa, Seri et al.
the barbarians are not only at the gate...they have gotten in.
2
And park anywhere, freely
8
Thank you Republicans since Reagan for systematically destroying the United States of America.
8
This is just more of the same Trickle-UP wealth redistribution that's been going on since the 80's. Pushed by the GOP and unchecked by the #Clinton #Biden etc Corporate Democrats.
5
Trump makes a big fuss because some foreign countriesuposedly they do not pay their fair share of depense spending",which is questionable , to say the least.
I think Trump would be be better advised to have Fed Ex and other GAFA, pay their fair share of american taxes.
Supposedly we have to cut social services to balance the budget!
All the while when most billionaires manage to pay 0 taxes?
4
Let's see if I have this straight.
FedEx, according to this story, increased its work force by 4 percent in fiscal year 2018 and 9 percent in fiscal year 2019. It gave raises to employees faster than previously planned. It spent $6.6 billion on 24 jets. And it increased payments to pension plans that retirees will rely on in their golden years. All of this is buried deep in a story front-loaded with FedEx's taxes dropped, isn't this horrible! Not mentioned at all is a steep decline in the company's stock price since it peaked in January, 2018 at $274/share. It closed this week at $158/share. When you have this kind of decline, it's not surprising that there might be underlying issues that would prompt management to curb capital investment. NYT jumps on the drop in capital investment in fiscal years 2018 and 2019, but doesn't, at all, explore why that might have been the case.
This is a thinly reported gotcha story. Capitalism, really, is not a bad thing. Yes, Trump is a buffoon who embarrasses himself and the nation on a daily basis, but facts is facts. The economy has done well since he got elected, better than it did, judging by all available metrics--unemployment, stock market performance, wages--than it did in the final years of Obama, when we were treading water. The instant Republicans got the White House, the economy improved, and stories like this embarrass NYT more than Trump.
Go Michael Bloomberg.
2
Trump made his reputation by being a grifter and tax scofflaw. Is it any wonder that, as President, Trump rewards others who aspire to be grifters and tax scofflaws? Absolute corruption corrupts absolutely.
8
"...bringing its effective tax rate from 34 percent in fiscal year 2017 to less than zero in fiscal year 2018..."
That dour Scotsman Carlyle's "dismal science" never fails to amaze me with its genial proclivity to contrive ceteris paribus "Bizarro Wolds"--deep apologies to DC Comics--by crunching numbers.
"[E]ffective rate of less than zero??" What's next?
1
Here I am, struggling with my humble salary to settle up with the IRS. If FedEx doesn’t have to pay Uncle Sam one lousy dime, why should I?
7
My tax bill didn’t go to zero, did yours?! Disgusting, but so what?
I’m going to cut ‘em off. There are alternatives that will get the job done. Even a partial cut-off will help. Yeah I know, they are all corrupt, but we’ve gotta start somewhere.
3
I think is fair to say that there is such a thing as too much Capitalism. It truly is the antithesis of communism and we are now witnessing its extreme manifestation, economically speaking. Next will be the truly grave, generational social consequences. If this course is not reversed US will be in deep dodo ;) Pardon my French! Social democracy a la Europe or Canada is not the bad word Americans were brainwashed to believe. 🇨🇦
4
This story makes me ill. I work three jobs and am not getting any younger. One paycheck away from disaster. My spouse works too. I need a break. I don't like Warren mocking "billionaire tears" because I think we need to be more civil than the GOP and oligarchs, but then again, I agree a two cent billionaire tax seems more than reasonable to this very tired American worker.
We need unions, we need a Green New Deal, we need a stock market tax, we need consumer protections, and we need a tax break.
14
Can you say; USPS?
United States Postal Service.
6
Big corporations should not be given obscene tax breaks just for existing. They have already coerced local communities into giving huge tax breaks to either stay where they are or re-locate to lower their taxes.
To pay no taxes is sinful. If this is the case, perhaps the local police and fire departments do not need to answer their calls. The roads in front of their facilities should not be repaired. No funding for public schools will mean they will not have the competent workers they need. Let the garbage pile up in front of their offices. If they want to take care of these needs on their, then be my guest, because they are not making as big a contribution to the community as they would to believe.
7
This confirms again Trump's and the GOP's 2017 swamp tax cut didn't help the rest of us. All Trump and his GOP swamp did in this case too, was to give 83%+ of it back to big biz so it could benefit the wealthiest in our country, especially the CEOs, like FEDEX, for their stock buybacks, for their own personal gain.
And now Trump and his GOP want to decrease our Social Security for the rest of us, again in the middle of the night!
Thanks for the memories!
3
I'm sure FedEx not paying any tax at all will be beneficial to Americans. You know, like repairing those roads and that infrastructure.
By the way, how that's infrastructure bill coming along?
10
Now that Fed Ex has all of this extra money, it might be appropriate to increase the road tax rate that they pay for all of their trucks that are using public roads to make deliveries. Part of the money received can go to infrastructure repairs, and the remainder can go to improvements in air pollution controls.
13
It’s disheartening that I have just come to expect the richest entities in America to never pay taxes.
And whenever I bring this up with “pro-business” folks, all they say is that it will free the businesses up to reinvest–even though there is absolutely nothing that compels them to do so with their stolen money.
10
There would be no socialism talk if those with the greatest wealth paid their fair share of federal taxes.
14
Many astute and knowledgeable comments here. Almost all of them are on solid ground while surveying the shaky quicksand.
2
From 1 billion to 0? I find that to repugnant to say the least! I'm on Social Security and owe the IRS close to $20 thousand, not including penalties and interest. Wheres my tax break? I'm sure I'm not alone in this situation so the question has to be, is FexEx's tax "break" now our burden? There is something very wrong here!
14
As a taxpayer who tries to pay exactly what I need to pay each year, this disgusts me.
9
I won't be using FedEx any time soon.
8
No surprise there. The Republican Party, that was debt and spending conscious, no longer exists. They’ve been replaced by the carefree spending, bankruptcy king leading “trumplican party”!
6
Just further confirmation of the pervasive personal and corporate greed that is bankrupting this nation. A hard rain is gonna fall on our grandkids.
5
If this country ever does become socialist, it won't be Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or even Elizabeth Warren who'll be responsible for that.
9
The very same thing happen during the Reagan administration. Trickle Down Economics does NOT trickle down!!! How many drivers got a raise? Did they upgrade their fleet? Build new logistics centers? Hire more people? NO OF COURSE NOT!
10
Trump and the Republicans lie,
The Middle Class and the nation dies.
And the economy caves,
The the Great Leader rants and raves.
6
To establish Fedex, first it was necessary to restrict parcel post delivery by the Post Office.
3
It’s despicable no matter how you slice it. Homelessness at all time high and multi-billion dollar corporations pay no taxes.
8
Well, Trump himself has said that if you pay taxes, you’re a fool. I’m beginning to think he’s right. Those of us who can’t easily dodge our taxes just aren’t savvy enough or powerful enough to outsmart the system. We’re truly the saps here.
But, somebody has to pay for stuff, otherwise everything will eventually grind to a halt. And that “somebody” is an increasingly overburdened middle class. No need to thank us now, but when that center “no longer holds” (to paraphrase the poet Yeats), remember us and how good things were when some of us took our civic responsibilities more seriously than corporations like FedEx did.
8
@MDB
That "somebody (who) has to pay for stuff" is your and my grandchildren and their offspring. Congress is doing what it does best: 1) paying political favors in return for contributions and 2) kicking the can down the road...so they can be out the door and long gone when the payment is due. You can blame Trump all you want, but it's Congress that makes the tax laws, not the president.
3
The president does have veto power though.
1
@Mark Shyres
"out the door and long gone when the payment is due". If only they would leave. You cannot wrench them out with a derrick. The average age is over 80 for our Congressional Representatives. What do they really care since their careers are over and they work for the perks and vacations and benefits. The Presidential hopefuls. Warren, Biden, Sanders, Trump and Bloomberg, if he gets in will have had a combined 376 years to get things done for all. That is part of the Republican rage and the need to call Democrats, Communists. Hopefully when the Democratic party gets in, it wont be back to business as usual but with some new ideas for the safety net, and with input from the American people who will elect representation with more energy and a stake in the future. These aged congress and senate members are a major part of the problem and a reason they do not like the younger generation of representatives there to take their place in the halls. We need more energetic representation and a younger mind and body that can thrust the swamp out of Washington. We need major reform and it is long past due. There is plenty of $$$ in the Treasury, it just needs to be properly managed and not mismanaged for more Pork.
I’m more worried about amazon.
2
And why not? We little people still dream of a country founded on the ideals of Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. But the corporate executives and investors (often one and the same) stopped believing in that in the 1980s. For people like Fedex CEO Fred Smith, America’s founding ideals are “life - if you’re rich; Liberty - if you’re white and cisgendered; and the Pursuit of Profit.”
.
And they wonder why we little people are so fed up with them....
5
In the Netherlands, immense public projects like sea walls, rewilding, computerized agricultural practices that make that tiny country the world's second largest food producer, a plan to reduce pesticide use—all are in place. Sweden is aiming to be the world's first fossil-fuel-free nation.
That is what countries with leadership look like.
Meanwhile I am a public school teacher paying for oil subsidies, paying to provide an entirely free court system, educated work force, utilities, police and fire, an entire Commons, for FedEx, EXXON et al. I apparently owe a tax refund to FedEx.
This tax bill, with its wildly scribbled margins and bled-off photocopied inserts increased my personal taxes three grand a year.
This is why we can't have nice things.
This is why we are in decline.
RUN ON THIS, DEMOCRATS. RUN ON THE PLANNED CUTS TO SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE!!!
Cenk Uygur for Congress! Go Squad!
Truth to Power
13
In the Netherlands, immense public projects like sea walls, rewilding, computerized agricultural practices that make that tiny country the world's second largest food producer, a plan to reduce pesticide use—all are in place. Sweden is aiming to be the world's first fossil-fuel-free nation.
That is what countries with leadership look like.
Meanwhile I am a public school teacher paying for oil subsidies, paying to provide an entirely free court system, educated work force, utilities, police and fire, an entire Commons, for FedEx, EXXON et al. I apparently owe a tax refund to FedEx.
This tax bill, with its wildly scribbled margins and bled-off photocopied inserts increased my personal taxes three grand a year.
This is why we can't have nice things.
This is why we are in decline.
RUN ON THIS, DEMOCRATS. RUN ON THE PLANNED CUTS TO SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE!!!
Cenk Uygur for Congress! Go Squad!
Truth to Power
4
It's stories like these that makes me take a closer look at Andrew Yang and his Universal Basic Income. Full disclosure: I support Elizabeth Warren and her 2% tax on the ultra wealthy. It's way past time for Americans to talk about these things and find remedies to fix the inequality in the system. If companies can get away with paying zero in taxes isn't this corporate welfare at taxpayer's expense? I say we give every adult citizen 18 years old and above $1,000 dollars a month as a Freedom Dividend for the rest of their lives. It's not a handout. It's a hand up. I am on taxable social security income. I will not benefit from UBI because my Social Security benefit is more than the UBI. Thus according to the plan I can have either one but not both. So in a sense I already have my UBI. It has not discouraged me from working. I am working full time and contributing to society in my "retirement". This is my choice as I don't like sitting around and being a couch potato. But I believe my fellow Americans who are eligible will benefit greatly from this program. What my social security UBI has done for me is give me peace of mind that my rent is already covered. I work for the good food and travel that I richly deserve in my golden years. Life is great!
8
FedEx needs to pay taxes for the infrastructure of roads and airports, at the very least! Their business depends on those tax-supported services. I'm disgusted by companies who take advantage of our country like that.
I heard they treat their employees as independent contractors too, to avoid paying for employee benefits. Their executives get all the benefits but not the actual workers.
So I only use USPS for my packages. If you care about this, use other companies while you still have a choice...
10
@sfdphd
Do they pay state and federal fuel taxes and license fees?
I'll have less that $50K income for me and my son, who has a disability. I'll pay around 10% in federal taxes. I'll also pay payroll taxes and sales tax of around 10%. I don't have any capital investments, but I'll also pay about $7K for medical bills by the end of the year.
I'm sure that the Fed Ex stock holders needed the money more than I did, though. I hope they enjoy it in good health.
11
Lobbying works! FedEx spent $10M in lobbying to make $1.6B in tax savings. That's a pretty impressive investment. If campaign finance laws won't change, maybe grassroots organizations should use their collective money to pay for their own lobbyists. You might think they could never outspend corporations but in the case of publicly traded companies, they would have a hard time justifying their lobbying budget if the return on that investment stopped paying off because competing causes where also spending on lobbying to offset their wins.
The campaign industrial complex lives! I wonder if anyone has shown what percentage of the GDP comes from political campaigns and lobbying. That money is constantly running through the economy. Campaigns spend on paid staff, consultants, advertising, transportation, hotels, restaurants, etc. It will be extremely hard to make enforceable changes to campaign finance laws (media organizations are recipients of some of that spending). If we can't beat them, join them (or fight fire with fire or put your own slogan here).
5
How about an IRS audit? Plus an audit of the company by EVERY state? They would be forced to pay a lot more than $1.5 billion - plus interest, fees, and fines. This is not rocket science. FudEx would settle in a minute.
2
The only thing that stands between corporations and mere people is functioning government.
6
And they tell us we cannot afford Medicare for All. This is why. Billion-dollar businesses pay no taxes while the unemployed do.
13
Perhaps someone should suggest that we use FeEx in an amount equal to what it pays in taxes?
9
Of all the delivery services, Fed Ex is the worst. I've had numerous bad experiences with them, which is why I don't do business with them any longer. Even the USPS is better in my experience.
3
So our free market system continues to decay until choices disappear altogether. In a free market system, nobody gets anything for free. No company can steal your clean water, seize your land by imminent domain, or graze their cows on federal land without paying the fee. They certainly can’t grab multi-billion dollar tax relief by buying off or funding the election of politicians. Providing the best products and services that customers really want in the most efficient way using resources acquired from an open market is the only way companies can succeed in a free market system.
3
A terrific reason to never again find myself in a FedEx store.
8
France, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada. This is an incomplete list of countries with a lower corporate tax rate than the United States. An effective rate greater than 30% is absurd and saddles US companies with a major economic disadvantage compared to multinational companies headquartered in countries with lower rates.
1
Not against lower taxes, but I am for a broader tax base with a permanent, lower rate for EVERYONE, corporations included. No exemptions, either. Works in other countries, so why not here?
2
In the United States billionaires are not only industrialists. They also are law makers. Either directly or indirectly brown envelopes changing hands.
5
I'm a shareholder in FedEx. The next time your tie blows out because infrastructure is crumbling you can take solace in the fact that I'm doing very very well.
6
Three reactions to this:
1.Trump has the audacity to now go after Amazon?
2. Its easy to see why the country is now further in debt than it has ever been.
3. Virtually every expert predicted this type of scenario would unfold except for those employed by this Administration.
15
"... for which the company had lobbied hard."
"Hard lobbying" is a euphemism for paying off politicians, right?
11
trickle down economics is the biggest disaster.
It doesn't work
75 percent of GDP is consumer spending
Give that 1.5 billion to those making under 40k and watch the economy grow
9
So many comments focusing on whether FedEx pays any taxes to support the transportation infrastructure they use misses the main point and attempts to turn the conversation into a transactional one. They intentionally miss the point of whether a profitable corporation making billions should be no tax while millions of Americans pay income tax that makes up for its lack of contribution. The relative fairness of that. Legal or not.
And the benefits FedEx receives are far more than using airports and highways extending to defense, commerce, education, social systems, communications, etc that I paid an extra $4000 for last year under Trump's tax cut to wealthy, tax increases to those he sees as his enimies law.
9
No, you didn’t pay extra taxes because of Trump, you paid extra taxes because MA lost the ability to use the federal government to subsidize their high tax rates. If you want to pay $4,000 less then vote your state government out of power or move to a new state!
Our tax system needs to be simple and transparent so you can make wise choices about where to live, it is anything but that today.
We need a tax system with ZERO deductions. The government should not be able to pick who wins and who loses; remove the incentive for tax-based lobbying!
@Social
People can't pick and choose where they live like they which can of tuna they should buy or if they should by hamburger instead. I am not like Trump where I can select which of my palaces I wish to call home.
There was social contract for years, decades, generations that people made decisions on years, decades ago. And then Trump, yes, Trump changed it.
If you want ZERO deductions it should be for all.
Of course laughable is: "he government should not be able to pick who wins and who loses" since that is EXACTLY what Trump and Republicans did. They chose particular winners and targeted particular losers. They even said that is what they were doing.
They picked the wealthy to win.
They picked the blue states to lose.
It was an accident. It was intentional. It was picking who wins and who loses.
shame on them that I pay more taxes than they do.
9
Failure to reinvest tax savings. Paying zero in taxes.
An indelible stain on corporate America. Where are the directors of these companies?
Have you no sense of decency?
9
Benjamin Franklin established the brilliance of his own administrative skills by establishing the United States Post Office.
6
So, Fed Ex paid zero taxes. Wow.
Meanwhile, Biden and other corporate Democratic candidates wonder why Warren seems angry and willing to fight so hard for a wealth tax and other big changes to end lobbying as we know it.
Corporate Democrats helped elect Trump and now are helping to re-elect him by taking swipes at anyone who disturbs this appalling state of affairs. Yes, that includes Obama who suggests that progressives are tearing the system down and or suggesting crazy things. Sad.
8
And people wonder why American-style capitalism is under attack.
8
Unbelievable.
Immoral.
Are there no patriots who are the heads of Fortune 500 companies who will look around and say, "We are not going to rip off the American taxpayer and tell them to pay our bills?"
No. Didn't think so.
Sigh....heart breaking what is happening to our country.
11
@Katie
The companies' directors appear to be AWOL. Profit first. Country second. Shameful.
3
Of course they didn’t reinvest in their companies. The greed of America gobbled all the tax savings up into their ceo and other corporate leaders pockets.
The Fall of the American Empire brought to you by our own Emperor.
4
Cool. So if they pay no taxes they may not use the FAA for their planes or the interstates for their trucks. Cool deal, right?
6
Wonder why we have the worst maldistribution of wealth ever?
Tax code favors the rich and the minimum wage since 1970 has not kept pace with either inflation or productivity. Healthcare insurance and non-funding of education has sapped whatever savings the middle class accrued.
Not hard to figure out once you put together all of the pieces.
We live in an oligarchy where political donations are effectively legal bribes and politicians represent their donors and not their constituents...
13
So our free-market system continues to decay until the choices and the markets disappear. In a free market system, nobody gets anything for nothing.
Excellent article and information. Thank you. I will be certain to use UPS and USPS instead of Fed Ex in the future. And it has just cemented my support for Warren. I can see why billionaires are afraid of her. They might have to pay taxes like the rest of us!!
12
As one of the serfs, I'm here at work on a Sunday (at age 72!) getting in some extra hours so I can pay my QUITE LARGE TAX BILL. I blame St. Reagan too for instituting another con job. I fell resentful and powerless but I hope my vote in 2020 counts for something!
17
We live in an oligarchy. Tax code and laws are bent to the rich. Politicians work for the donor class. The media pretends that the country is center right when it is in fact fairly progressive. That's why a faux populist like Trump won on the Republican side in 2016 and Bernie would have won on the left had the DNC, HRC and super delegates not had their thumbs on the scale.
6
FedEx, more than many, makes its billions in profits by relying on our failing infrastructure: roads and airports. It's criminal that they can get away with making citizens pay more in taxes to pay for that while they get to use the infrastructure for practically nothing.
19
And not only do they not pay for infrastructure but they are the cause of our decaying roads and bridges by wearing them down. Every time a Fed Ex truck uses a road it wears it down, shortening its lifespan.
5
How many Fedex piggybacks do you see on our interstates? What’s the PSI of a freight truck barreling over an Interstate at 75MPH. Imagine that banging on concrete and/or asphalt.
1
It is the same old Republican tax cut scam. Under Reagan it was called "trickle down" only it didn't. You give the wealthy and corporations a tax cut, get an initial jump in the economy, and then it fizzles because companies do exactly what FedEx did, and the wealthy send their tax savings to offshore tax shelters. Of course, with less taxes in the government coffers, then the Republicans start beating the drums about cutting Social Security, Medicare, and other social programs to pay for the tax cuts.
20
@Diana
This is the same trickle-down, which never worked, from the Reagan era and the same economist, Arthur Laffer. tRump awarded Laffer the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Larry Kudlow is a fan of Laffer and is tRump's chief economic adviser.
2
Clearly we need a Federal alternative minimum corporate tax at a rate around twenty percent.
9
This is why, when criticism of the financial impossibility of Warren's hopes for universal access to healthcare are voiced, we need attention to the entire system ... a system that exempts many businesses from taxation, allows "inversion" so that businesses are legally incorporated overseas, yet still avail themselves of US benefits, while pay very reduced, if any taxes, and there are special categories (14% pass-through rates) or bogus "enterprise zones" with huge tax exemptions, or government financing of research and development, with no sharing in the profits (pharma especially), or military equipment that is not needed, just to allow every state to claim a piece. I have yet to be convinced "we can't afford it!" when there is so much corruption and waste. Until this is remedied, and we have a cleaned up budget and fully potent tax collection agency, then any accounting on what is affordable is irrelevant
7
FeeEx’s entire business is built on a functioning transportation infrastructure that others built and maintain.
I guess it’s good that all of us taxpayers are funding that for them.
Because if we didn’t they apparently wouldn’t.
Also can’t remember the last time I paid negative taxes to the government.
That’s because I never have.
8
The trickle down effect works. It just doesn't go to workers and hiring people, that's all. It goes to China and other countries and gets more US workers fired.
As intended.
5
If only we had some Democratic candidates willing to take on big corporations to change tax law and institute a more progressive tax plan. Oh, wait. We do.
I know these candidates are serious because Bloomberg is now in the race.
8
Seems pretty simple... FedEx invested their tax burden into stock buy-backs (paid off a lot of debt); making their financial health far better and increased their investors dividends... This placed them in a PRIME financial position to hit the ground running (expansion of staff and infrastructure) when Trade Deals are approved by Congress (like USMCA - which has been growing moss on Pelosi's desk). Corporate tax cuts were the 1st of 3 steps... Pelosi needs to move step 2 (TRADE - which Trump gave to her, on a silver plater) so step 3 can commence (investment in infrastructure and US personnel (JOBS, HIGHER PAY and MORE OPPORTUNITIES for US WORKERS). NANCY PELOSI: PLEASE DO YOUR JOB AND STOP DENYING US CITIZENS OF JOBS, HIGHER PAY and MORE OPPORTUNITIES!
Corporations have been singing that song for years. Don't hold your breath.
2
@adrianne
Agreed... but, now they (US corporations) have a President that is interested in and has/is set/setting the table for these US corporations to accomplish what other recent Presidents haven't been able to... Trump's transparent 3 point strategy is logical, obvious and in the US interest. Let's see how it plays out if/when Pelosi gets out of the way (she's the only hold up at this point)... Pelosi should pass the USMCA so it can get passed in the Senate and signed into law, in 2019 so it can take effect Jan 1, 2020... I think the immediate effects of it's passage will be all too apparent by Nov, 2020... which is what Pelosi and the Dems are afraid of. Pelosi and the Dems chose their own POWER OVER PROSPARITY OF THE PEOPLE.
Time for an Alternative Minimum Tax for corporations.
We have one for individual tax payers....same should be true for business entities.
9
Once again we see vulture capitalism at its finest - no sane person can be surprised by this. As a result we'll see the national debt go up exponentially, as well as calls for severe cutbacks on social services.
8
Take back the tax cut for the rich and reinvest it in a tax cut for working families. Repeal the income tax on social security, lower the interest rates on student loans, and honor the forgiveness programs for the loans. That will stimulate the economy.
3
So, FedEx is happy to use our roads, highways, bridges, and airports for profit, but refuses to invest in this infrastructure by paying taxes?
Then with the savings from not paying taxes, FedEx refuses to invest in itself?
Can't wait for Cast Away II to premiere on Disney+ next year to revitalize corporate goodwill and diversify income streams...
5
Another example of the Republican Tax Scam. While the middle class pays taxes on taxes paid to the State (I still can't believe that the SALT tax deduction was reduced--very unfair to pay tax on money that I didn't earn), the ultra rich pay nothing.
5
And social security is doubly taxed as well. I hate this country.
1
Wow, it's almost like this is a complete surprise! After years of corruption in our government, who would have thought that a corporation could possibly pay nothing in taxes?
4
The president has always and continues to refuse to release his tax returns.
In December 2017, he "signed into law the $1.5 trillion tax cut that became his signature legislative achievement."
Today we read about just one of who knows how many other American companies that paid less than zero in taxes in the 2018 fiscal year.
While Trump's tax cut rewarded the lobbyists and his mega bucks pals, this tax cut greatly benefited him as well.
I'm getting pretty worn out from reading about all of the jobs created and wage increases that supposedly are occurring. These "wondrous works" sprinkles are so disingenuous. Just recently I read an article in the Times about how many families must work 2-3 jobs a day in order to merely make ends meet.
In the meantime, the country's roads and highways and bridges and overpasses are crumbling and deteriorating at alarming rates. Where's the money going to come from to fix those behemoth problems?
9
FedEx pays no taxes, but the state and federal taxes the rest of us pay are used to maintain the roads FedEx uses to make their profits.
14
And don’t forget about the federal government’s role in AIR Travel for package delivery
3
@Bakari
FedEx pays those too but it's not enough to pay for infrastructure maintenance or rebuilding.
Republicans, corporations, tax cuts, reinvestment. Who would have thought that combo wouldn't work out well?
13
Is this a great country or what? In other news, does anybody still remember the deficit and our mounting national debt?
18
Have you noticed that no matter how unproven a policy might be the Republicans will always present a reason for that policy that they put forward as fully proven. I suppose that placates their base and hides the irrationality and uncertainty of much which they do. Even if a policy--such as this trickle-down, greater investment in the economy by the wealthy -- has actually been tried in a few states and found wanting, has never been proven -- the stated reason suffices to pass the cuts that help those who pay campaign bills and more.
15
The Republican vision of the future as a replay of the Middle Ages has become reality.
The Lords of the Manor control the means of production and the serfs pay tax in order to scratch out their meager existence.
If history is any guide, this can only end in one place - civil war. Perhaps Trump is finally truthful about something...
18
The FedEx situation is a marker of widespread corporate welfare in this country. But Americans allow themselves to be distracted by the legislation of morality and women's bodies leaving everything else to be decided by wealthy donors. The day they come to terms with the fact that they are being fleeced while distracted by those and other matters is the day that some of this may change. With an ever diminishing middle class and the rising number of poor we are veering into third world status.
21
@Michael Both matter but it is time to vote on all issues, and so far this President's term has been on the wrong side on all issues. Vote him out and then fix the tax code.
4
I appreciate this article and understand the point the authors are trying to make, but it undermines their credibility when the chart for Big Savings and Small Investments is skewed. For example, consumer staples shows a -11 on the left and 14 on the right, but the right bar is much shorter than the left bar. Perhaps their intent was to scale the right side for the outlier of energy (71 on the right), but I don’t think they should have. They could have used an equal scale and put a break in the 71 bar. In my opinion they are trying to use optics to drive home a point rather than let the data speak for itself. Were the authors afraid that the delta may not have looked as severe if they hadn’t skewed the right side? If the graph’s scale was equal, would this article have been published at all?
1
FedEx is only one of of the the big corporations in America that pay zero tax, thanks in large part to Trump's "Tax Relief for Billionaires" tax bill. This excellent article should name some of the others citing the taxes they should have paid and didn't. Which we middle class taxpayers will have to pay.
12
FedEx saved $1.6 billion in taxes and rewarded it's hourly (all part-time) package handlers a .75 raise to $12.75.
It's is a lousy place to work. Starting times vary from between 1:30 and 4:40 a.m. and you never know your start time until the day before your next shift. Your end of shift depends of the volume of packages but never approaches 5 hours b/c they don't want to give employee lunches. You're given a 10 minute break that can occur anytime w/n your sift including as late as 30 min. before your shift ends. Once we were made to clock-out of our shift for 30 minutes while we waited for delivery trailers to arrive. In other words they didn't want to pay employees a lousy $6+ for standing around while they waited. Obviously the company does all that it can to keep it non union.
This is not what Adam Smith described as the noble capitalist. This is American greed.
41
This comment underlines the need for more mandatory benefit rules for companies to follow. For example, the 30-minute clock-out should cost the company the double if they do it! That would be a “your welcome” to the actuaries who who run the show pulling down over a hundred grand yearly.
2
@Aristotle I try never to use a Company that uses Fed Ex, to me of the big delivery services in the US they are the worst. And it is their attitude that I dislike the most.
3
So this is sort of small potatoes by comparison, but Fed Ex, UPS, etc. literally pay pennies on the dollar, if even that much, on the thousands of parking tickets they rack up every day in places like NYC as they double park on narrow streets, block bike lanes, bus stops, bus lanes and on and on. I once pointed out to a driver that his truck was getting a ticket. He laughed and said he didn’t care, he just throws it away. Oh well. At least bring it up to ten or fifteen cents to offset the cost of No Parking signs.
8
The "tax cut" is just another income transfer from the many (citizens) to the few (those who own stocks). Portraying it as an economic stimulus is the same lie as it was when Reagan was President.
60
@Dan Broe I remember the first time Reagan was elected president my heart sank. He was a better actor as a president than he was in the movies. What a fake!
14
Perhaps FedEx and other Fortune 500 companies would be more amenable to paying taxes if their dollars weren’t spend to buy votes by paying pothole fillers $50,000/year, veteran cops well over $100,000 and to provide teachers with multi-million dollar pensions. Maybe if the highways their trucks drive upon didn’t cost millions per lane mile due to union construction worker at that is often north of $80/hour. Maybe if we didn’t allow college educations for baristas and high school diplomas for those who unload merchandise at big box stores. Both of those jobs and many more can be satisfactorily performed with substantially less education.
4
@From Where I Sit
From where I sit, the potholes are from the FedEx trucks, and I'd rather give welfare to people than to corporations...
Guess we'll be seeing a FedEx Trump Hotel and Welfare Center real soon...
21
@From Where I Sit But I suppose you're not upset by the estimate $16 million that Smith made in 2018? Could fix a lot of potholes with that.
15
@From Where I Sit — These people who you think are undeserving of a college degree may well be working as baristas or at big box stores while they look for jobs in the fields of their respective degrees. My son happens to be one such person. Would you rather him and his cohorts just go on the welfare rolls instead, rather than working and paying their fair share of taxes, unlike a megacorporation like FedEx?
This elitist, “let them eat cake” attitude is a huge reason why we are where we are.
6
Republicans always sell their tax cuts to the public by touting how companies and business owners will reinvest their savings in their employees and/or expansion of business to create new jobs. THIS NEVER, EVER HAPPENS!
Tax cuts should be tied to reinvestment. Stock buybacks or artificial increases in shareholder dividends should be prohibited.
15
Typical do nothing for the country corporation. I will boycott FedEx.
11
How is it possible we allow this to happen???
Why are we allowing FedEx, Amazon, Facebook, Exxon, Shell, Apple, y so many other huge corporations to do this??
7
@Alberto
We have the best politicians money can buy. That's how it happens.
Does this all go for UPS, too?
1
The moral of this story is : GOP and President Trump will tell you they hate communism and socialism. But boy they love oligarchy.
20
I spent over 22 years in the U S Navy and you know what? I hate this country.
13
I’ve spent over 65 years in this country & I’ve only hated this country during this administration. We now have a hateful president rabidly supported by hateful people, in power by a quirk of our outdated, non-representative electoral system. We need an overhaul but not led by a self serving, amoral ignoramus filling the Supreme Court with the same.
2
REVERSE CITIZENS UNITED! Corporations should not have more power than individual voters. Democracy, anyone?
21
Yes, indeed!
1
It’s an oft-told political-economic fable. A lowly corporation sends its well-lubricated K Street lobbying machine to Capitol Hill with ample cash treats to hob-knob with Trickle-Down Sycophants and, with the liberal aid of said cash treats, convince said Sycophants that this time a massive corporate tax cut would actually create jobs. Although Supply-Side Hooey had never leavened the economic bread of the Mighty Commoners before, this time, the Sycophants were told, things would be different. This time, unlike other times, corporate tax savings would actually be “invested” in operations and used to hire more employees and grow wages. The Commoners would finally get their due, corporations would flourish, and everyone would live happily ever after. In the end, only the corporations and those who own them flourished because the outcome of this Trickle-Down Scheme was exactly the same as every other Trickle-Down Scheme corporations and their Republican lackeys have foisted on the American public over the last 40 years. The moral of the fable should be clear by now: corporations, hooey, and cash treats do not good public policy make.
9
So corporate profits should be taxed and go into government coffers where its misdirected, misused, wasted and abused by Washington operatives? While corporations may pay less taxes than a lot of people would like, My firm for one has invested in hiring more people, giving employees raises and share awards and embarking on infrastructure changes that they openly attribute to the tax windfall. You would have to be crazy to think that the clumsy hand of government can do a better job.
3
congratulations, you did things the way it was supposed to work, but without restrictions, whenever most corporations are given our money, in the form of a tax break or bailout, they almost never spend it as a govt would, to benefit all, not just some pet project foundation drop in the bucket and the rest to upper management and shareholders. If people doubt this, look to cuts in food stamps, chip programs, help with housing unless you are a family or over 65 and needy, no infrastruction package, which all these corporations need to do business. And who ends up paying the bill for taxes they dont pay anymore, you and me, the American tax payer. Meanwhile, they fight increases in wages, take away ability to have work related expenses off taxes, raise state real estate taxes,increase the amount we pay for health care with rising deductibles, that makes our policies only good for emergency or catastrophic care....
4
I for one, don’t think government spending is any more wasteful than private sector spending- it just occurrs at a larger scale, and is usually rooted in PRIVATE sector waste and greed. In fact I think government spending is typically more efficient, because government spending does not waste billions on inflated CEO salaries, lobbying, advertising and stock buybacks, and does not freeload on infrastructure and service systems built and paid for by taxpayers. But government does waste billions on PRIVATE contractor defense programs like Lockheed’s TRILLION dollar F35 fighter jet program, and of course we all know Americans spend about 3 TIMES what other countries’ citizens spend on equal quality health care- mostly because of the spiraling cost of PRIVATE health care providers, equipment makers, and pharmaceutical companies.
Good for this writer that his company has used the tax cuts to invest and reward employees. Now do something about income disparity, homelessness, student debt, the opioid crisis, global warming, environmental degradation, disaster relief, nuclear threats from hostile countries, terrorism, pandemics.. .wait-too much for you? Thank goodness you have government to help out.
5
The clumsy hand of government runs the immensely popular Medicare program. The clumsy hand of government maintains the best trained, best equipped, and overall finest military in world history. The clumsy hand of government controls air traffic with extraordinary effectiveness and safety. During my lifetime, the clumsy hand of government has dramatically improved safety on our roads, despite the auto industry’s best (worst?) efforts. Also during my lifetime, the clumsy hand of government has dramatically increased the cleanliness of air and water—though the far-less-clumsy hand of political corruption is doing a bang-up job of reversing those gains. The clumsy hand of government also administers, very effectively, the largest group health insurance program in the world (through the federal Office of Personnel Management).
Meanwhile, private interests, unrestrained by government‘s clumsy hand, also do lots of things well. Like kneecapping the world economy during my father‘s lifetime. Then kneecapping it again during my lifetime. Or creating a system of redlining in the home mortgage market that’s endured for generations, leaving us with two Americas, one black and one white. Or flooding the auto market with Ford Pintos, full in the knowledge that if rear-ended, they may, well, explode. Or flooding the nation itself with weapons of war.
Not everything the government does is good. Not everything the private sector does is bad. But FedEx should pay its fair share of taxes.
2
So the Trumpian Republicans gave a 1.5 trillion tax break which hasn't "trickled down" and no one is talking about how radical and extreme it was. Additionally, the Trumpistas go on and on how great the economy is.
What if that 1.5 trillion were used for a "radical and extreme" idea like universal healthcare or Andrew Wang's UBI? Obviously the money was/is there. Why's it extreme, called socialism, insane when the money benefits everyone, especially our poorest?
12
@Paul only in Seattle would people be naive enough to agree with you. In the real world- where businesses drive economic growth, we should be doing what we can to make them more competitive. And yet NYT commenters seem to want to demonize anyone or anything which makes money and employs 100,000s of people, all of whom pay taxes. Does the left realize that successful businesses actually contribute immensely to the tax base just by employment?
1
@Jason the whole point is the funding of the government should not rest on the shoulders of individuals who are often scraping by and that regardless of how many people they employ, large corporations should do their civic duty and pay their taxes in order to help lift that burden of their workers and support a robust safety net that works towards equity for all. Short version? Fed ex paying zero taxes is immoral and the world should run on more than adherence to the almighty gods of profit, profit, profit and more profit.
5
@Jason This isn't about demonizing anyone; it's about having an honest discussion, grounded in empirical evidence rather than boilerplate ideological "arguments," about how the tax code can be shaped to allocate resources most efficiently. You do not address the facts presented in the article, namely that corporate tax subsidies aren't being allocated efficiently via reinvestment. 80% of our GDP is consumption. When the tax code doesn't equitably distribute wealth consumption goes down because consumers don't have enough income to meet current consumption needs. In the near term, consumption can be sustained by extending credit to consumers at extortionate rates but at some point the chickens come home to roost. We saw this in 2008 when credit lines were open to all comers regardless of credit risk in order to sustain "growth" in the mortgage market. The simple point of the article, which you completely ignore, is that tax subsidies to corporations aren't efficiently allocating resources. The obvious long-term result is a massive fall in GDP as corporations "reinvest" tax subsidies in the form of executive compensation, exacerbating income inequality, and, in the end, destroying consumer demand as the average consumer's income falls far below what is required to sustain growth. Argue on the merits instead of employing the discredited boilerplate argument that allocative efficiency is increased inexorably when corporate behemoths pay no taxes. This is not a sane view.
7
I wish there was more reporting done on the scourge of independent contracting. Independent contracting is exploitative of workers as it allows companies to skirt certain laws and avoid paying benefits such as health insurance that they would otherwise be required to. If I am required to wear the uniform and do all of my work for one company, why am I not an employee of that company?
8
I paid 30000 in taxes, and ss last year. And I dont have enough to save for or pay for a home. I'm living better than most, but recently found out how precarious that is, when I was laid off / fired for my medical condition. Of course this was illegal, but I still fell in that pocket of not qualifying for insurance, disability, unemployment, or any other benefits. Even though I pay high taxes. Tell me how it's fair that the very rich are paying so little, etc.
13
@mel It's not and our system needs to change.
2
@mel It is not fair at all. You have my sympathy. I pray that you will be blessed with healing, comfort, and strength.
2
Putting more into the pension fund will pay off for everyone in the future. So that's one positive note.
2
...and so triumphs cynical enrichment of the few at the expense of everyone, and in particular the employees of these companies whose salary remains minuscule compared to their CEO. But why do millions of such employees vote against their most basic interests? If the answer isn't obvious, you must have also voted for Trump. Make sure you remain poor and clueless, vote for him again.
7
I thought he was going to correct this inherent unfairness. Come to think of it, where is that great health plan of his?
8
Why are Republican administrations so destructive to America and its people? You have to ask yourself that. They promise fairy tales to mid-western voters, and then instead enrich corporations and the one percent.
5
How many times do we need to do this? If you give a tax break to the corporations (with no strings attached) or the rich they mostly buy back stock or give it to the top guys or save it. They don't use it to hire more people and they don't "create" jobs with it. It does bust the federal budget however. If you give it to the middle class and working class, they spend it, they have to. This stimulates the economy, but doesn't stimulate much in the way campaign contributions like fat cat cuts do. 60 Fortune 500 companies paid no taxes in 2018. They had a collective 79 billion in profits. So if you, personally paid ANY taxes in 2018, you paid more than these companies. I'm also guessing you didn't make 79 billion. It isn't socialism or creeping communism to have corporations pay more taxes. For example, in the early 50s the corporate share of federal tax revenues was 32%. It was 10% in 2013. It's even less now. In 1950 the president was that commie sympathizer Eisenhower. Something is not right.
10
I'll trust FedEx to know how best to utilize its gains over the likes of Warren or Sanders any day.
3
Remember that FedEx’s gains are your loss. Someone has to pay the expenses of the country and if it’s not FedEx it’s you and me.
5
@MaryLou
Sorry, I don't consider anyone else's money -- or property for that matter -- my own.
1
So you won't be using roads or bridges or public education or protection by the military, police, fire dept. or Medicare etc.? You know, all the things paid for by "other people's money."
1
Maybe local governments can start charging FedEx -- and all other couriers -- for their drivers' persistent illegal double parking, blocking traffic.
6
Calling Elizabeth Warren. Calling Elizabeth Warren. Please report for duty.
6
Maybe it is time for civil disobedience.
6
Why are we not taking to the streets?
7
So much for the myth of corporate good. Corporate greed is the actuality.
8
So What?
FedEx put $2 Billion in cash back into the economy in the form of dividends & buybacks.
That’s money better spent than having federal government burn through it in a matter of minutes.
4
@Arch Stanton Dividends and stock buybacks do not stimulate the economy, because those with already obscene incomes that benefit from those strategies can only buy so many yachts. Increasing their employee's wages would stimulate the economy. The government could also stimulate the economy with the funds (e.g. infrastructure development).
2
@Arch Stanton
So What?
Infrastructure, education, health, debt.........
1
And to think FedEx is the company we're reading about that has paid zero taxes. What about all of the other companies? Surely with Trump's over the top generous tax cut, there are a plethora of other companies that are getting the financial break of a life time.
In the meantime, the majority of the rest of us struggle to barely make ends meet.
And the kicker for me - FedEx would leave our package on our front door step, never rang the bell nor notified us via a text message that we had a delivery. After the third theft occurred, or so they claimed, we never used FedEx again. We frankly always believed they never delivered our package in the first place. I have a million stories like this one.
6
@Marge Keller, a magnanimous gesture on your part to completely pardon the thieves that actually stole them.
@John Doe
That's just it Mr. Doe - I don't know WHO stole our packages. Street thieves or inside thieves?
All I know if that we never received our goods and never used FedEx since. We've also have had success using other carriers.
So who really knows the truth?
2
Since the authors don’t want to reference the income statements of the company I will. So far in 2019 FedEx has generated $70 billion in revenue with a total profit of $540 million.
So that is $70 billion in revenue with roughly $69.45 billion in expenses/costs.
This isn’t exactly a company that’s crushing it right now. But the authors see fit to leave these convenient facts out of their article as they demonize the company.
3
How about corporations only get tax deductions as a result of proven investment in either employee salaries or benefits (not executives and stock options and bonuses excluded) and investments in communities and/or public works? Instead the corporate oligarchy is bloated, power obsessed and increasingly insane. Interesting choice of leader as well. It is exactly like Hillary Clinton warned us: Republicans on steroids.
3
@Thankful68
Tax deductions ONLY for employee salaries and benefits, and investments in communities?
Brilliant. Democrats should campaign on that.
Deal?
3
@Dr. John you're obviously a fan of corporate power (or benefit from it) and I'm ONLY advocating for the majority of workers who don't have billions to invest in lobbyists to have a stronger voice and share in corporate profits.
1
I believe FedEx is unique in the respect that it is not a delivery company in the classic sense although it behaves as one, but rather a airline which affords this company some protections or considerations the UPS does not enjoy.
1
Lowering taxes has historically shown to have zero effect on capital investment, if business is good Fed Ex will buy new trucks and give their drivers raises to retain them if business is bad or there are an over supply of workers, say through immigration, looking for jobs in one ofthe few areas not requiring a college degree pay won’t increase measurably. America’s golden era was when America was largely a country of European decent, taxes were very high and people paid them because they got a check from a factory like Ford or a store like Sears that paid them a living wage, benefits and a retirement plan; banks like B of A and Wells Fargo paid decent rates to savers and a dollar was backed by gold. Today you have an economy run by culture capitalists whose business model is predicated on destroying someone else’s business, bankers that are no more than thieves in suits and e commerce types who like Uber or We Work who are scammers. Restoring a tax system that pays our way rather than amazing debt, ridding society of the sociopaths running things today is the only way to capture what America once was, that beacon of freedom and opportunity rather than allowing it to be a beacon for every fast buck artist on earth as it has become.
4
Tax cuts for public companies just creates a wealth affect, but when their share prices come down, it will all have been for naught and the damage will be exponential.
Is it time for an Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) on corporations that do business in the US? After all, corporations claim to be people, too!
5
This article is very misleading. The reason FedEx paid zero tax is they made large investments in capital assets which they wrote off in one year as allowed. In effect they took the money that would have gone to taxes and bought $4.2 billion of equipment and doubled the increase in their workforce. The economic impact of that investment alone is likely much higher than had they paid the $1.5 billion in taxes like 2017. Also the 2017 number seems to be unusually high. "Company officials said FedEx paid $2 billion in total federal income taxes over the past 10 years" that's an average of $200 million a year a far cry from the amount paid in 2017. As to the vanishing $1.5 billion the authors are confusing deferred taxes recorded under GAAP accounting and actual income tax liabilities. Deferred taxes increase if rates go up and decrease when rates go down, this is not a sinister tax dodge but simple math. I'm not a fan of the tax cut but looking at the numbers it appears FedEx did increase investment and hiring as promised. That is a much different conclusion that the one being presented.
5
@Mark no, in fact they invested in nothing. Well, virtually nothing.
1
@Nick Yurchenko Article states $4.2 billion of equipment purchases, FedEx financials list $5.5 billion. Not exactly nothing
In California, we voted ourselves a 6 cent per gallon of gas tax, to raise more money for road maintenance. Just think if Fedex paid their fair share of taxes, how much more money we’d have to keep the streets, that their trucks help tear up, in good shape.
I’m back from my Sunday morning ride, and I ended up on Pico, which is horribly dangerous due to the wide cracks in the pavement and deep potholes.
1
and everyone else gets the bill for more unfunded tax cuts.
4
The cover image includes a subtle, perhaps unintentional nod to the mantra of big businesses these days: "socialize the losses, privatize the gains."
In the bottom corner are a number of boxes labelled "United States Postal Service." I remember seeing them when I worked in my dad's office as a teen; they typically accompanied a large volume of mail heading to a destination, and also warned (or requested) that they not be used for anything but US mail.
And here is a photo of FedEx doing just that. I acknowledge that FedEx partners with USPS for a specific type of mail service where FedEx transports the mail between major hubs and hands it over to USPS for the last leg.
Still, it's telling that the US Postal Service is set up to serve all customers, and a company like FedEx can't be bothered because it's probably not profitable. But they have no problem using those boxes, not paying taxes, and per many comments in the article, paying fair wages to their "employees".
3
Welcome to The Gilded Age 2.0 (or, 3.0 depending on a pre-Great Recession, or post-Great Recession).
It was also reported a couple of years ago, that Walmart even got a multi-billion dollar tax refund!!! With the corporate PR machines churning out promises of more benefits to employees and consumers, if only they could get lower taxes, the gullible voters(nearly all of whom are Republicans) demanded their representatives in Washington grovel and genuflect to the corporate greedlings whose lobbyists wrote the self-serving tax-cut legislation.
And those lobbying efforts are funded by conservative "think tanks" funded by super-rich groups and individuals hoping to continue the process of dumping the cost of running the country on the 99 percent.
FedEx is just one example of corporate mobsters telling gullible voters, in a classic shakedown, "A nice country you have here. It'd be a shame if something happened to it." (I know, Trump used similar language on the president of Ukraine.)
How do they get away with this? Watch those retirees from the House and Senate as they head into the "sunset" of seven-figure jobs offered by the companies they voted to deregulate.
The classic example came when Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin "retired" in 2005 after killing legislation that would have allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices. He rode off into the sunset as President and CEO of PhRMA, the lobbying group for "big pharma." Aahh, the costs of The trillion-dollar tax cuts.
6
"The pseudo legality of campaign finance bribery has gamed the system to the point that the people have no voice in government."
Indeed, and when the Attorney General of the United States tells a biased audience that "Impeachment is overturning the results of a legitimate election and impeding the will of the people" one must ask two questions:
1) Where does the responsibility of the voter end, and the responsibility of the elected begin? In other words, you were elected (or appointed) and so where does your responsibility to act in that capacity begin? Why are you refusing to do your job, deferring to the "will of the people" who already put you were you are to do that job without their input?
2) When have elected officials ever listened to the will of the people? When they want to do something, they do it, no matter what.
2
Another day and another conservative Republican propaganda claim (corporate tax cuts will be reinvested, tax cuts for the wealthy won't cause deficits, if only government were run like a business and so on) is exposed for the lie that it is.
When are Americans going to finally wake up?
Conservative policies and politics are destroying this country.
8
The Laffer curve says that cutting taxes can increase revenue by growing the economy: a guy making 50,000 dollars at a 40 percent tax rate pays less than a guy making 100,000 dollars at a 21 percent tax rate.
That’s a nice idea.
So, how much money does FedEx have to make before that 0 percent effective tax rate starts paying off for the American tax payer?
6
It is not hyperbole to say that the Republican party is the most dangerous organization in the world. The foundation of the party is the thoroughly discredited dogma that Markets are Magic and that we are always only one Tax Cut away from Salvation. The ideology of the party has all the hallmarks of religious fundamentalism, including a defiant indifference to all facts that undermine the putative veracity of the dogma. Given this indifference, is it any wondering we are living in a post-truth world? We should regard Market Fundamentalists with the same incomprehension and outrage as the most rabid leaders of ISIS. Market Fundamentalists, like Larry Kidlow, pose a far greater threat to human health and dignity than the devotees of ISIS and one doesn't have to be a "socialist" (read: heretic) to see this. Capitalism, like Islam, can be salvaged but the popular press has to be far less restrained in its assessment of Market Fundamentalism and its rabid devotees whose beliefs, incidentally, are at loggerheads with the Enlightenment values that we like to believe form the foundation of Western Civilization.
12
Well said!
3
The taxes paid/not paid by Fed Ex is only only part of a much larger story of how our taxes have become increasing regressive, leading to our current economic inequality. Please read the larger story by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, "The Triumph of Injustice: How The Rich Dodge Taxes and How To Make Them Pay." This is a slim volume, written in plain English that, nonetheless, puts forth profound data that illustrate how regressive our current taxes really are and how our tax system creates and perpetuates the 0.01% elite class.
They are the economic advisers for Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax. It is their knowledge, combined with Warren's legal and legislative acumen that give me hope we can make the US a much fairer nation. And isn't that worth fighting for?
11
Is anyone surprised? Conservatives have been preaching the benefits of tax cuts for decades.....and the results have always been the same.
11
I nearly got run over the night before last on the interstate by a FedEx tandem tractor-trailer. They not only damage our roads for their own profit but also dominate them at night and increase the risks for taxpayers that try to use their own roads.
11
Tax giveaways are unfortunately brilliant political strategy because the true costs fall outside the four-year presidential term. This was Reagan’s real innovation that the GOP has owned to this day: Use trickle down as a political strategy masquerading as an economic one, and dress profligacy in fiscal discipline’s clothes. It’s why the GOP keeps winning under the guise of serving, and Dems are flat of foot because we insist on debating the facts rather than the distortion of them.
10
The need is urgent.
Tax bills originate in the House.
Instead of doing nothing or simply blaming Trump and Mitch, Nancy Pelosi should rally her majority Democratic House members to immediately pass a bill in the House repealing all of the Trump tax cuts.
Then she and her members can stand tall, confront Republicans with that need, while campaigning and telling American voters why taxes must be raised.
11
Make FedEx your "Ex" if it refuses to do its fare share by paying taxes (it uses, and pollutes, OUR roads and OUR air, OUR tax-funded federal agencies and personnel to help them domestically and internationally, etc, etc) or if it refuses or fails to keep promises made to all of us via our self-government.
12
Corporations like FedEx have built large organizations which are dependent upon the availability of cheap, reliable and hard working laborers. Labor unions are anathema, and the use of benefits that are often fluff, are used to create the illusion of security, without the substance. It is not difficult to see how profits end up in the hands of major stockholders, leaving many of those, who generated the wealth, permanently stuck at the bottom.
Expecting tax relief to encourage reinvestment, that results in the kind of benevolence need to strengthen our economy, such as infrastructure, education and healthcare, is whimsical at best. It is the working man, who ends up paying at an even larger tax rate, and who is left to shoulder that burden.
15
This "study" is interesting but hard to say how you could really draw any firm conclusions from it.
Are the authors seriously saying that you just measure changes in capex in 2018 vs. 2016 and then make a conclusion about the effect of the corporate tax cuts?
Did interest rates change? Cost of capital? Global economic conditions? Wages? Inflation? Competition? Technological disruption?
In any event, the argument for setting the U.S. corporate tax rate at the global average is strong (and now it sits just above the global average, whereas before it was one of the highest in the world).
3
Was hadn’t changed is that corporate America is a bunch of free loaders. Not paying their fair share of infrastructure and education that we need for a globally competitive economy.
10
The effective tax rate is not above the average. The retail rate may be but, very pay that as the article points out. Worse, the percent of total taxes being paid by corporations is at an historic low, shifting the burden to individuals and/or deficits. Not sustainable
5
@Mmm
Setting the corporate rate at the global average is one thing. Getting these robber barons to actually pay taxes at that rate is an entirely different matter.
5
What ?! you mean corporate america has not created jobs and invested in improving conditions for it workers?
When will we realize that cutting taxes and regulations only really helps those at the top, who hoard that money. Trickle Down economics has nor=t ever worked and is responsible the for the growing income gap and dwindling middle class.
The only thing Trump has done is to double down on this platform. Shame on us for continuing to vote for it.
10
With a complex, often arcane, tax code that supports an army of lawyers and accountants and IRS employees, it should be obvious that the place to start is a drastic simplification. The tax code should not be administratively efficient, it should not distort markets by favoring certain sectors, it should provide sufficient revenue and be fair. It is this last criterion that seems to be getting all the attention with the 'wealth tax' controversy. It should not overshadow the larger problem of tax reform.
6
@van schayk Please note error: "The tax code should be administratively efficient"
1
American taxpayers from higher paid and higher taxed blue states also subsidize the corporations in the right to work red states that pay their employees at or near the below poverty level federal minimum wage.
Hard working poor people get federal wage subsidies in the form of the earned income tax credit thereby providing their employers with an even bigger windfall. End it the earned income tax credit. Make employers pay their workforce without American taxpayer subsidies.
11
They also use social services and the safety net even though they work. Another taxpayer subsidy.
7
Zero taxes for a business who’s profits are only generated after wearing down hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public investment - roads.
America: for sale!
11
Half of the president's base are not million/billionaires. They are angry, anti-big government, self-perceived taken-advantage-of, hard working for a weekly paycheck (mostly white) Americans. Are they "ok" with FedEx (and the other corporations) paying no taxes and not spending a penny of their savings on their taken-advantage-of hard working employees?
9
@Red State But Faux News tells them the economy is booming ("look at the stock market") and everyone is benefiting (it'll get around to them any day now).
3
This is why I am exasperated that Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are being trashed by the media and the corporate Democrats as being “too liberal.” No. They are not too liberal. They are trying to restore balance to the very rightward tilt of the Democratic Party.
17
Most American play by the Rules. Go to work and pay taxes from their pay check and then come April 15 file their Federal returns. They don't have lobbists in Washington working for them. The Governmant does not Produce a Product. All revenue come from Taxes. I have No problem paying taxes. I become completly upset when I contine to read Corporations paying a far less percentage if any than the regular working Public. I worked 47 years today retired and contine to pay Federal and State Tax, So why should these companies get a Free Ride.?
12
@frank monaco
You ought to be the gal who provided daycare for her grandchildren, so your children could work with the college degrees you paid for and then have your social security record reflect you’ve been sitting on your rear-end. Before I die, somehow the Social Security Administration is going to give credit to stay-at-home mothers, non-paid childcare providers, and non-paid caregivers. I loved seeing the attorney on the evening news, during the last Chicago teacher’s strike, hollering because he was unable to find childcare. Guess who really holds the keys? And, as I’ve always said, guess who can truly bring the business world to a halt?
No news here when Kansas did the same thing Business just kept the money and never reinvested it in their employees. In one survey Busines owners said why should they invest in their own companies if there is no demand for their products and they would just keep the money they did not have to pay in taxes.
If you want to create demand in the public sector to go out and buy goods and services just give tax breaks to the millions of Americans who pay 25% in taxes and not the Corporations and Billionaires who do nothing for the economy.
9
They are far from alone. The tax cut was strictly for corporations and the top 1%. Would not be surprised to see another similar tax cut the next time the economy looks like it might be going into a near recession. Make America Great Again.
6
What a bright future! Let's all join the FedEx workforce and pave the roads in purple, white and orange asphalt!
2
However King Trump with his anti China business tariff's ongoing baloney game has made the FedX stock go down about 100 dolla'srs a share as transport from China to & fro is a large part of FedX income.
2
Wow, what is that crazy Liz Warren thinking of when she pushes for higher corporate taxes - or it seems in some cases, any tax at all?
8
Won’t use FedEx again!
6
Wait! Wait! You mean that trump's tax cuts aren't doing what trump et al promised they would do? What a shocker! Yet, his base, comprised mostly of lower and lower-middle income folks, all of them experts in economics no doubt, keep touting how trump is good for them economically and will use this pretext as the reason why they want to keep this misogynist bigot in office.
Meanwhile, all these alleged democrat billionaires keep saying that Warren would be awful 'cause she hates rich people. Well, guess what? Given how these filthy rich CEO's rob and pillage to make their billions, maybe hating them is the right outlook.
Maybe it would be best that these super rich start accepting a penny's tax on their billions...the alternative could be much uglier. What happened to the super-rich during the French revolution might be something for these elite to reflect upon. You know, to choose between giving up a tiny fraction of their money to help the society that they've plundered, as opposed to facing the guillotine...
4
Truly Disgusting. I will likely try not to use fedex as much as I can.
4
Trump will run up the deficit and ordinary Americans will become slaves to the bill. How disgusting that this is allowed to happen again just like the Reagan trickle down scam that amounted to the trickle up. The rich getting richer while the poor get poorer.
4
When Regan spoke about the "Welfare Queens", I recall my brother talking about getting all those black, single women with 8 kids (all from different fathers, of course) off the welfare payroll.
Ironically, the "Welfare Queens" were corporations, like FedEx, with white guys in charge.
Talk about a sleight-of-hand's approach to governance with hatred as the object.
7
If I lobby, can I get my tax bill to $0? I promise to invest the savings into my personal stock by back.
10
FedEx reinvested so much in the past years that when that tax cut came in everything was swallowed in. All that tax cut money was beneficial for their employees and incentives that their contractors received. The tax cut was basically absorbed by its own people and reconstruction of it horrible old, ugly facilities. As a business owner, that tax cut saved my business basically, was only to stay afloat. If not many many more business would’ve gone out of business and businesses would’ve continue to go abroad. I say those tax cuts were the best idea. By opening a business we are already contributing to society. Fair share.
4
@Eliza
They don't like the idea of a company's deciding how to best utilize its gains. Their lust for government power is so strong, anyone or anything that stands in its way exercising its freedom to act, is now an enemy.
1
@AACNY So I should pay for the roads that FedEx drives on (and destroys) so they can make more money?
2
Recently I had a discussion with a Republican friend. We were talking about an agency giving money to a poor person. She could not understand why that person who not come up with the money himself. We than talked about oil companies getting millions of dollars each year from our government. Her response was there was probably some reason they needed the money. That is the problem!
9
The Trump plutocratic revolution has created a massive increase in income inequality in the country. FedEx and other corporations have taken the Grover Norquist GOP anti tax revolution to a new level. But the push back is muted because of a misbegotten notion that its socialistic. That 50% of the US lives from hand to mouth one step away from financial disaster doesn't register. This outrageous assumption that the country is a meritocracy hides the fact that lobbyists have created with Trump and his allies a system that denies democracy and embraces unrestrained assistance to the plutocracy. Trump's election was based on playing on the have nots resentments about decline is economic status and the nasty prejudices he gave free reign to. While at the same time feeding the already wealthy and their greed is good politics.
4
I never use FedEx as I was already familiar with the right-wing nature of the management. I use USPS and if that's not available I use UPS; both unionized. You have to chip away at fascism: first land in North Africa, then Sicily, then Italy, then Normandy. 2018 was the first landing, 2020 will be the fall of Berlin.
5
Where's all the anger at Wall Street corporations from GOP voters?
3
@Matt anger at what? That they employ hundreds of thousands of people and didn’t make a profit in 2018 and thus owed no taxes? Only the left would be angry at that.
1
@Matt — Most are still buying into the myth that if they work long and hard enough for these corporations, they, too, will one day be just as rich as the CEOs. That’s why they don’t see the slave/master dynamic. I’m beginning to think they never will.
4
@Jason "..didn't make a profit in 2018..." LOLOLOL. They bought the pols that make the rules that define "making a profit".
2
This only shows how capital snowballs and buys political power and legislation, therefore helping balloon the fortunes of the wealthy and enslave the many, reduced to something akin to (a de facto) indentured slavery really. This is sick!
To better understand the phenomenon, read Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty, for which the economist received the Nobel Prize. His research show how this rigged system goes back three centuries.
We need massive systemic restructuring and taxation is at the heart of it.
2
A U.S. corporation lobbies for tax breaks and then doesn’t do what it said it would do with the savings..... I’m SHOCKED, shocked I tell you.
2
The Republicans (and the Citizens United decision effectively makes every corporation a Republican person), like Trump their leader, look to banana republics for their model of how they want society to be: Obscenely rich at the top, with everyone else living in poverty. The concept of a middle class doesn't exist in the Republican mindset: It's just winners or losers. It's no surprise that the tax cut only furthers this Final Solution along...
2
Its the same old story. "The Rich Get Rich and the Poorer Get Poorer". Nothing new here. Shame on FedEx and all of the other hypocrites. Glad that my increased taxes went to a worthy cause.
3
Remember second rate actor Reagan became the pitch man for GE america corporation they bought the right man for the con job big tax cuts for the corporations and kill the unions
4
Just wait for the fireworks to start when a Democrat becomes President and has to raise taxes to pay the Interest on the debt, greatly increased by Republicans who preceded them.
It will be non-stop 24/7 screaming bloody murder of why should we have to pay more.......
What a country
5
@John Mullowney And, as usual, the GOP will become born again deficit haters.
2
The tax bill worked exactly as predicted by any economist not in a Milton Friedman cult. Reduced Fedex’s tax bill to zero. Spiked share price via buybacks. Gifted executives with another pile of wealth. Thus the spoils of our rotting capitalism.
6
This makes my blood boil! Enough of these shenanigans. Corporate American needs an iron-clad Alternative Minimum Tax (ATM), after all, corporations are people!
5
This is unacceptable. It's unpatriotic, it's draining our Treasury, and it's just. Plain. Greedy.
I propose we freeze the Department of Defense budget until we close the loopholes that allow corporations to pay zero in taxes when they are more profitable than the GDPs of some small nations.
The new corporate raiders of this century are not raiding other companies with hostile takeovers. They are raiding the coffers of the American people to enrich their management and stockholders. Disgusting.
4
If one were seriously interested in rooting out corruption, there was no need to go to the Ukraine. Instead, just honor the slogan “America first”.
4
Leona Helmsley, the New York hotel tycoon and widely dubbed the "Queen of Mean", famously uttered “We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."
Taxes give the government the revenue needed to provide a huge amount of public service from the regulatory agencies that ensure we get safe foods, medicines, etc., to the military, FBI, CIA, and a host of agencies that keep us safe, to infrastructure, to overseeing our financial system against corrupt practices, and much much much more. For companies to avoid paying taxes to a nation that allows them to conduct business is flat wrong. Everyone should pay taxes and the wealthier businesses and people should pay more. Bring back the graduated taxes of the 1950s and 1960s.
5
Stop victimizing corporations.
FedEx provides employment to 425,000 people.
Most of them pay 20%-30% tax each, both federal and state taxes in many cases.
I am fine with FedEx paying no tax. I would even say that any company that employs more than 10 people must be tax-free.
2
@Bhaskar Well said. Once the left pushes all of these companies to Canada, Mexico, Europe, etc, they will look at each other and wonder who they should demonize next.
2
I'm good with companies paying no taxes. I want their CEOs, however, to pay 1960s tax rates.
And I wouldn't allow people to declare themselves corporations.
3
@Bhaskar
best way to judge the policy is to determine whether it increases $ gradient {vast disparity in income} among the US population. It seems to be so and hence it creates a correction through Ms Warren and Mr Sanders.
Someone tell the President Obama, who is now on record asking those of us asking for a restoration of the human::corporation divide that we are now being "Too Far Left" (TM).
Any remaining shred of respect I had for him, coming largely from his personal story, he has managed to shred. Good deal, Mr. President. Your sell-out to the corporate wing of the party continues unabated in the public perception. Bravo!
3
Use the United States Postal Service for your shipping needs when possible. They have been around a lot longer than FedEx.
4
Please ... People really "believed" the Trump/GOP fairy tale that Corporations would reinvest their Tax Windfall into hiring and expansion?
Trickle down ... the biggest fairy tale of all!
3
Amazon is going to severely hurt FedEx when it grows out its own delivery network. Although FedEx doubling revenue in a decade is impressive, I wonder if that came from growth or simply raising rates?
End Citizens United.
If corporations are people where’s MY tax loophole?
7
As Republicans and Trump supporters continue to spout the only merit of Trump's presidency, the so-called robust economy I would like to know:
Do the majority of households have extra $$ in their bank accounts?
Do the majority of households consider the last two years have given them a better quality of life?
What is the homeless situation in America?
Does anyone have any evidence that trickle down economics work?
8
@KLA But Faux News tells them that everything is booming and that boom will reach them any day now.
1
Did not read the article. I hope a foreign government did not have military aid suspended until corrupt individuals agreed to investigate Trumps competition.
2
Mr, Fred Smith CEO FedEX is paid near $16,000,000. annual compensation not to even consider shares of the company. He would be a candidate for the proposed wealth tax. It is not unreasonable to assume this great country and our great population that uses Fed Ex service, we are the ones that most assuredly were front and center in creating his massive wealth. The consumer, US. Time to recognize and implement a modest 1.5-3% wealth tax. For simple example: $100,000,000. in assets = $3,000,000. tax remaining balance $97,000,000. A bad days correction in the stock. market.
3
As expected. The new tax bill resulted in my middle-class income tax going up, $1.5B increase in the national debt and the 0.1% increasing their wealth disparity. It really is impressive how a large part of the population remains conned .
5
This wouldn't be allowed to happen in any other first world country. America still happens to be the largest retail consumer economy in the world, so of course corporations have focused their efforts to steal the world blind more here than elsewhere. Nevertheless, no other country would allow it to happen.
4
So let me get this straight. Fedex lobbies hard to get out of its obligation to pay any taxes at all to the federal government, manages to move the goalposts to a promise to reinvest the money into more jobs and higher pay, then reneges on that obligation too? Oh, how could anyone have possibly known? It's not as if their past behavior in fulfilling its obligations were any indicator.
4
The real “socialism” is the corporate ownership of government. Primarily, but not entirely the GOP.
Government subsidies of the new Robber Barons dwarfs welfare.
7
I’m currently in class to be an accountant. One thing that disgusts me every day but is 100% not surprising is that in every single ethics class, there has not been one mention of an obligation to pay taxes back into the system. Instead, every single accounting textbook I’ve seen paints the picture of the exact opposite. They say that it’s the ethical responsibility of the accountant to ensure that their billionaire bosses pay as few tax dollars as possible.
And then it dawned on me that this has been going on for nearly a century. America’s universities teach tens of thousands of people every year that their duty is to avoid paying back into their own country, AND that behavior is perversely presented as patriotism. This entire experience of attending accounting classes has really been quite shocking. I always knew that accountants had apathy towards funding the government. But now I realize it is not apathy. It’s open hostility. And they are being TAUGHT to have that hostility.
12
@Ira Gruber
Your problem is, those wording tricks that you use to skate out of accountability for the problems that corporations have created is that now I know the tricks you are using.
Corporations don’t “re-invest” in their companies the way you are suggesting. Because what “re-investment” actually is, is buying assets based on ROI probability distributions. You know what corporations aren’t doing? Raising wages. Accountants look at labor the same way they look at taxes. Open hostility. The accountant views a dock worker not as someone who contributes to the overall profitability of the organization and deserves fair compensation for their time, but they view labor literally as a liability. It’s insane how accounting in this country works.
They view and count their workers the exact same way they count other *bad* things like high interest debt. I think I am honestly headed for a career in forensic accounting and working to prosecute white collar crime. Because just about everything I am learning about how accounting works in the real world is pretty astonishing.
It’s no wonder wage growth has been stagnant since the 1970s and we are running $1 Trillion annual deficits.
1
@Ira Gruber
Screed? No. Fact? Yes.
Who sells your saleable inventory?
Corporations still stick their employees with sub-par high deductible health plans that cost thousands for little to no coverage. Take a look at the world around you. Really LOOK at the world around you.
When was the last time you read an article where someone was talking about the joys of the American healthcare system or heard someone talk about how grateful they were for their lack of healthcare coverage from their employer plan in real life? Not on a Fox News website. I mean you’re at a family function and someone is talking about their health insurance.
Because I’ve never once, in my entire professional life spanning an 8 year Army career, 3 years in oil and gas, and 5 years in HVAC service, ONCE heard someone utter the phrase, “Thank God I had to spend 5 hours on the phone this morning with my insurance company just to have them deny my claim anyway.”
I know how to read the financial statements. I see the CEO bonus payments. I see the dividend payments. I see the revenue. I see the retained earnings.
You telling me a company that posts billions in profits every year can’t afford to pay a janitor $15 per hour? Please. That argument doesn’t fly anymore.
1
This is what a right-wing dystopia looks like. Giant corporations pay zero taxes, and they increasingly rely on third party contractors so they don't have to worry about benefits for employees. And our system of government is so owned by these interests, that - even with Dems in charge - I don't see their grip loosening.
6
Trickle down economy has been proven, over and over, to be ineffective in stimulating the economy - even if Fox Disinformation Networks trumpet the opposite. Eventually, facts matter. Tax cuts for the wealthy are just that: welfare for those who don't need it. Those who work pay for the rich while our country's infrastructure continues to decays and our deficit is ballooning. Thank you so much, Donald Trump, for making America weaker each day and for allowing the American tax payers to pay for your long and wonderfully relaxing golf weekends. You were right in criticizing other presidents for taking a few days off. Only you deserve a break. We will keep this in mind come Election Day.
3
Well, don’t get mad at the workers who just need a job. I filled in for a regular delivery worker and they have all kinds of ways to cheat even the workers. They tell them they will pay such and such, but then after taking the job, they rate the time required to complete the job, and it’s usually derived from a light duty day. I learned the hard way. They rated the route for seven hours and the regular worker couldn’t do it in ten hours. Of course he was only paid for seven. It was the biggest mess I had ever seen! The gal before me ended up in the hospital with the worst case of shingles they had ever seen and she couldn’t gain weight for a needed surgery. There was no time for lunch, and they start before most eat breakfast. And both sides, management and union were to blame. Hats off to the many delivery workers who start their days early and go till the job is completed, regardless of what they are paid. It’s horrible and the conditions are even worse!
4
"t did not increase investment in new equipment and other assets in the fiscal year that followed, as Mr. Smith said businesses like his would."
Ah, yes, and who, exactly, believed something a CEO "said" he would do? No contract? No legal restraint on how their tax windfall was to be spent? This was no "deal", not from the revenue end of our Treasury, was it? No, it never is with repubs. Just cut taxes, because those absurdly overstuffed mansions (multiples!) and extended foreign vacations don't pay for themselves!
2
Im not in favor of these huge tax cuts. They hurt us all in the long run for investment in the public and services, for example
HOWEVER, toward the end of the article, it states that hiring went up, raises came sooner, and more $$$ went into the workers’ pension. So, if you WORK for Fed Ex, you are probably going to care MORE (or only) about that than capital investment and the longer term effects of the tax cut. And if this is true of FED EX, it may have happened in lots of companies. I read lay-off may be imminent NOW, but if that doesn’t happen before the election, doesn’t that translate into possible support for Trump? I believe we can’t dismiss stuff like this as we work to get Trump out of office.
2
@Sharlene Cece :
Does it mean that $ out of federal basket is few $ in worker's pocket and millions in FedEx CEO's basket?
1
As for capital investments, the company spent less in the 2018 fiscal year than it had projected in December 2017, before the tax law passed. It spent even less in 2019. Much of its savings have gone to reward shareholders: FedEx spent more than $2 billion on stock buybacks and dividend increases in the 2019 fiscal year, up from $1.6 billion in 2018, and more than double the amount the company spent on buybacks and dividends in fiscal year 2017.
As for capital investments, the company spent less in the 2018 fiscal year than it had projected in December 2017, before the tax law passed. It spent even less in 2019. Much of its savings have gone to reward shareholders: FedEx spent more than $2 billion on stock buybacks and dividend increases in the 2019 fiscal year, up from $1.6 billion in 2018, and more than double the amount the company spent on buybacks and dividends in fiscal year 2017.
This year, the company cut back employee bonuses and has offered buyouts in an effort to reduce labor costs in the face of slowing global growth.
Tax cuts for the rich while workers struggle. How much more money does Fred Smith need? How many more dinners can he eat, how many more cars and planes can he fly/drive?
The Fred Smiths are like Trump, they don't care about America or Americans, they care about the size of their own bank accounts...
2
Fed Ex classifying a large percentage of their employees as independent contractors to avoid unemployment insurance and other worker related taxes, something they’ve been doing for years, along with not paying taxes on their income as a result of lobbying efforts is freeloading, plain and simple. They use taxpayer funded roads, dirty our air, cause congestion etc etc and outsource all of these costs to the middle class taxpayer. When are people who vote for these crooks going to wake up?
3
Why not we tax them (Corporations ) like people and let Government distribute those money to the area where it is required?
Sound better to me; since there will be at least some distribution vs here - we the people being looted by GOP for the corporates.
1
Corporate CEOs and their Billionaire Buddies don't 'get it'. We the serfs read articles like this and add the information to what else we know. We know that the 1% are treated differently in the courts. Their money buys them freedom from true accountability.
See Jeffrey Epstein or the bank CEO's who caused thousands of Americans to loose their homes during the recession and faced nothing.
All this knowledge paints a picture of one America for the top 1% which is significantly different from the America where the rest of us live where a health problem is cause for fear of losing your home. It's not just Bernie or Warren who should 'scare' them. The more this inequality is exposed, the less it will be tolerated by the masses.
The newest "trend" is for the billionaires to buy vast swatches of land and build themselves 'compounds' against what exactly? The polluted water their corporations dumped or the diversity of society? Who knows but their desire to 'escape' is cause for concern.
3
@Keith A relative of mine thought he was delivering for Fed Ex. He was delivering their packages, but using his own truck. He asked for a Fed Ex sign to put on his truck and was told no. He had an accident on the job and had to file with his own insurance company. Then one day he was contacted by a union representative of Fed Ex who explained to him that he was being used and regular employees were being laid off. The union rep offered him several hundred dollars to resign, and he did.
2
Want an entertaining way to learn how the world's financial system works for the rich and not the rest of us? Check out Netflix's "The Laundromat" staring Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, Gary Oldman to name a few. Based on the Panama Papers release. Remember those?
3
Fed Ex is in survival mode.
Will Fed Ex be here in 10 years?
What are the odds?
Fed Ex employs 425,000 people.
1
Individuals have an Alternative Minimum Tax. It’s time corporations have one, too.
4
President Trump is a perfect shill for the right-wing corporatists who still bow at the altar of Reagan and Thatcher. Like President G.W. Bush before him, he is tremendously ill-informed and easily manipulated. Also like Bush, his sense of powerlessness could very well lead to tragic outcomes — especially given his obvious moral weakness.
For 2020, I am looking for a candidate who understands and honors the founding principles of our republic. While Trump puts too much faith in corporations, many of the Democratic candidates place too much faith in government. To me, the standout is Pete Buttigieg (whose name I’ve miraculously learned to spell). Pete is unique in his ability to explain why he believes what he believes.
2
This tax bill was exactly what we all knew it was, and Democrats said out loud it was, before it passed - a multi-trillion dollar transfer of wealth to the richest companies and individuals from the rest of us.
Trump personally, and his buddies in the commercial real estate industry, have cleaned up on changes in tax law targeted to give handouts to him and them directly.
And of course this hasn’t raised business investment or helped our economy. It never does, and that wasn’t the intent anyhow.
The Republican Party has had one legislative goal since Reagan - eliminate taxes for the wealthy. All the rest (culture wars, racism, anti-abortion etc.) is window dressing in service of that goal.
6
This article makes clear how the tax cut worked to the detriment of taxpayers and the economy. But the kind of duplicity used to pass the bill into law will continue, if we listen to conservatives in and out of government. At his rallies Trump will boast to cheering crowds about how he alone reduced everyone's taxes to create the greatest economic boom ever. Lobbyists, corporate executives and Republican politicians will thumb their noses at any criticism of their great contribution to American society, knowing that the new tax law will stand for years to come.
2
There are NEVER any requirements that in order to receive the tax-cut, business must FIRST make the capital investment, create new jobs or increase wages. It's always on the "Honor System."
Our federal taxes funded, regulated and built roads; laid miles of water, power and sewer utilities; built dams and built bridges across rivers that connected communities and provided access for business. Before tax cuts, private citizen and business alike benefited from our tax dollars at work, building and maintaining our infrastructure. Yet, after tax cuts, business continues to benefit from infrastructure that is desperately in need of repair.
Over the years, Federal tax cuts have reduced the amount of monies going to states for infrastructure and development. States resort to bond measures or increased statewide taxes to cover infrastructure needs, either new or repairs, and to start new ventures. Meanwhile, the little guy pays more taxes than those who make significantly more and are better off.
So much winning and so little celebrating.
3
And all this time the republicans have been telling us corporations are people, too. That’s funny, I don’t know any people who don’t pay taxes.
4
Ah,the real "deep state." It is still extremely puzzling how the middle of America has been buying this bill of goods for forty years. Its transparency is evident. The gop has been very effective in building the coalition of resentment and bigotry,while showing fealty to their corporate masters. A good corporate man would have been a great communist.
2
Taxes are patriotic. A way of giving back to the institutions and government that made a company’s success possible. A way to pay it forward even.
People like Mr Smith are deeply unpatriotic
9
That is one way of looking at it. One could also point out it would be unpatriotic to use our capitalist society and it's system of taxation to the fullest. However, it is one thing to "crack open" a door; especially one which should have remained shut to safeguard against "loopholes". Regardless, this was done anyway decades ago by "others". Unfortunately President Trump has "removed the door"; and in doing so, the safeguards are gone as well.
1
In addition, this is far from the first time a corporation "lied" about their intentions;. It is more like the 10,000th time.
As Fedex asserts, it is true that you can't just look at a raw comparison of capital expenditure before and right after the tax cut and come to an ironclad conclusion as to whether the tax cut helped or had no effect on overall "investment".
The time horizon is much too short to come to a certain conclusion.
However, stock "buybacks" would tend to strongly contradict their assertion, as their efficacy IMO have always been questionable at best or outlandishly stupid to completely irresponsible executive management at worst.
This is exactly why the middle class needs to pay higher taxes.
Does the middle class hire hundreds of thousands of employees like FedEx does?
Does it give them nifty uniforms like FedEx does?
This is meaningful!
In fact, tax the middle class more, and pay FedEx for all the good it does. Amen. That's America. That's the real American way. Let's make good on it. And just like FedEx, there must be thousands of other corporate giants out there, doing good, and also entitled to payments from the middle class. Let's all give a helping hand!
Keep on doing what you do, big corporate guys. Somehow (I don't know how you do it!) you need to keep lavishing untold millions on your executives (BTW, what a totally deserving crowd - not everyone can get middle class and poorer people to work so hard for so little).
Pollution? Ha, now there's a can to kick down the road. Someone'll figure it out. Doesn't someone always? In our case they may have to figure things out in a submarine as our planet drowns in rising seas, but they'll do it. I'm confident. Look, America's already being made great again. Anything is possible! Especially the easy peasy stuff.
3
Get rid of professional lobbyists to save our democracy.
4
You pay more tax on a single pack of gum than Fed-Ex will pay on billions of dollars in profit this year.
Why? Because people vote Republican.
9
Seems the authors of this piece need to take a course to understand Accounting Standards Codification 740, Accounting for Income Taxes. The lack of basic understanding of the accounting rules is very obvious in this case.
2
A little too late to buy FedEx stock, I guess.
1
Hmmm you mean trickle down economics doesn’t work? That’s weird.
6
While I totally agree with the basic ideas that corporations should pay taxes, the ballooning of the debt is immoral and fiscally idiotic, and that Trump is destroying thus country, I also object to your graph. To have different scales for the tax break and the investment side of the chart is disingenuous at best, and dishonest at worst. The chart makes the tax cuts look as large as possible and the investments look much smaller. Please don't treat NYT readers as if we were Fox "News" viewers who can be spoon fed propaganda. We are smart enough to understand a properly designed graphic and what it represents.
"Welcome to the machine" - Pink Floyd
Facilitated by repeated rounds of (R)eagan-style, trickle-up tax "reforms", corporations have steadily slashed their financial support for this nation from which they profit so enormously.
In 1960, corporations contributed 23% of US federal tax revenues. By 2018, the Predatory Capitalists, abetted by their wholly-owned (R) Congress Critters, had finagled to slash that corporate share to 7%!
2019 Federal tax revenues are projected to be $3.4 Trillion. If the corporate share remained at 23%, they would contribute $791 Billion in taxes - an increase of $550 Billion instead of the piddling $241 Billion they are reluctantly coughing up!!
Corporate America - "We privatize the profits, and socialize the costs".
4
Another real example of torpedoing this democracy going down.
2
The Trump tax cuts, the gift that keeps on giving:
Federal corporate tax revenue fell from around $300 billion in 2017 to $200 billion in 2018, about one-third, due to Trump’s tax cuts. Since the top 10% own about 80% of stocks (and the top 1% about 40%) we know who got the most benefit.
The typical worker saw faster real wage growth under Obama in 2015-2016 than Trump in 2017-2018, so we see no positive impact there.
Future generations get saddled with deficits 60% larger than the continuation of Obama policy, visible when you compare actual results with the CBO January 2017 ten-year forecast.
Further, since job creation was faster in Obama’s last 33 months than Trump’s first 33, and GDP growth was the same at 2.6%, all the Republicans giving credit to Trump for turning around the economy should revisit their view.
P.S. The number of uninsured is up 2 million under Trump, thanks to ACA sabotage. And the tariffs have cost the average family about $400, more if fully implemented as threatened. And your 401k grew faster in Obama’s first term than Trump's at a comparable point; it isn’t even close.
3
It is astonishing that big business wants to take advantage of all the benefits of a 1st world nation--well a developed transportation system, clean water, fire, police, etc. and are unwilling to pay for it. Once again it is left to the middle class to shoulder the burden so that the wealthy can accumulate more money for themselves.
The 2017 tax cut was a sham! Most people knew the argument that our economy would be stimulated when the savings were reinvested was just talk and while the average American saved a few hundred dollars (home owners in the Northeast actually got a higher tax bill because of fewer deductions) it is the wealthy who laughed all the way to the bank!
Congress must revisit the tax issue and they must do it soon!!!! This is not sustainable. If companies like FedEx want to ply their trade in the US they must pay for it. This isn't an unreasonable demand! The average citizen can't lobby lawmakers because they don't want to pay their taxes. Someone needs to tell FedEx and those like them that If they want to play here, they must pay their fare share of the tax bill.
3
According to the article, businesses grew more slowly after Trump's tax cuts than they grew before the tax cuts. The stockholders got all the money, and they probably stashed their cash in the Cayman Islands.
Under the Republicans, the rich get richer and the poor and middle class get poorer.
4
FedEx relies on our publicly (tax payers) funded infrastructure to make every single delivery every single day. Why don’t they fairly pay for use of our roads and bridges and airports and on and on as they make their way? Tax them! It’s only fair.
2
I would like to see an analysis of how many and which large corporations paid minimal or no taxes this year, along with FedEx. How many of them did this by deducting all capital investments in year one rather than amortizing them as was formerly done?
Note the buyouts and reduced employee bonuses mentioned in this article. At the same time, the stock market that their bosses invest in is at an all-time high. Trickle-down economics, the darling of Republicans, just doesn't work in the long run.
1
The tax system is broken and totally inadequate for this global economy.
Taxes on labor dis-incentivize labor and incentivizes automation (robots); taxes on earnings disadvantages American companies; taxes on capital earnings reduces investments.
I think we should abandon all and create a system of Value Added Tax, inheritance tax, and wealth tax. Wealth tax for corporations and individuals.
Of course it has no political chance.
2
This is likely the ignorant question, but what about UPS and other delivery services? Does anyone know how much UPS paid in taxes? Can we the people punish FedEx and Smith by boycotting FedEx in favor of UPS? Or is another Commenter correct in saying they all pay zero taxes? And that other thing, about FedEx drivers being third party employees. My poor FedEx driver is an older black gentleman who has one of those fabric casts on one leg and limps up to the door. It looks positively painful and pitiful. On the other hand my UPS driver is cheerful and johnny-on-the-spot. Never thought about that disparity much before. I will now.
1
Another misleading analysis. FedEx may have paid little or no Federal Income taxes but that's only one of many taxes they paid, the most significant being state sales taxes. In 2018 their income before taxes (revenues less expenses) was $4.3 billion. Their taxes, mostly state taxes, were $1.4 billion. Rather than rely on alarmist headlines, like "How FedEx Cut its Tax Bill to $0", I suggest readers spend the time to do their own investigation. In this case, financial statements are easily obtainable.
1
"FedEx increased the size of its work force by around 4 percent in its 2018 fiscal year and around 7 percent in its 2019 fiscal year." That ain't nothing.
This article seems to gloss over that that's about 40k additional jobs created by Fedex. This article cherry picks the financial statement to get to a targeted conclusion.
2
Supply side economics have failed us (American society) once again.
Had enough yet? Biden, Buttigieg, and the rest of the Fraud Street corporately owned politicians will continue this travesty.
Want to somewhat curtail this nonsense and start making the corporations and the investor class pay a modicum in taxes? Vote for Warren.
Want to absolutely end this and and force them to start paying their fair share in taxes---and perhaps even a tad extra? Vote for Sanders.
1
@Concernicus
Want to wake up, and realize that Warren and Sanders are going to get crushed in the general election?
Want to wake up, and realize that even in the very unlikely event one of them could beat Trump in the general, neither has the ability to get any of their silly ideas enacted into law, because the Reps control the Senate?
Want to wake up, and realize that Warren & Sanders are playing progressive voters for fools? M4A is the progressive version of Trump's Mexican Wall; a silly distraction to trick naive people into giving you their vote.
It is important to understand that Zero Democrats in the House or Senate voted for this TAX CUT!
No false equivalency on this situation. Republicans own this Debt and expanded inequality.
Run on it!
5
So, slashing taxes for the wealthy, well connected and corporations with no strings attached (like, umm, maybe a little quid pro quo?) does NOT lead to the much touted "trickle down" benefits we have been promised for 40 years by:
Ronald Reagan
Jack Kemp
Newt Gingrich
George W. Bush
Paul Ryan
and countless other Republican hacks who probably know better, yet still spout that disgraced nonsense, culminating in the latest cuts from the current criminal administration???
Wow… imagine that.
2
Corporate escape/avoidance from paying taxes, their fair share, is thievery in plain daylight, truly Trumpian. This is not conducive in cutting down the current odious inequality in these United States...and to democracy's standing.
Here's what I'd like to know and that is absent from this article:
"Dear Mr. Frederick Smith, how much federal income tax do you think your company should pay? If you think zero, Mr. Smith, explain your thinking."
2
I challenge every American voter out there to ask how the Trump tax cut has helped their family. It is amazing how many Americans who are not doing any better today than they were before 2016, and that includes education and health care expenses and other costs of living, how can they continue to support Donald Trump and his Republican Congressional enablers who support the fat cat businessmen like Trump and Fed Ex while the rest of us poor slobs are left out in the cold? Regardless of what you might have seen on social media and the Fox News clowns about the Socialists running for office in the Democratic Party look in your own wallet. Has your off-shore bank account in the Caribbean grown during the Trump administration?
2
The power is with the people.
We can vote in an election.
We can vote everyday with our purchases.
Just do not use their services, of one who offends your values and spread the word.
Then write to your representative.
Problem
Too few people vote.
Seldom do we leverage our buying.
Very few write to our representatives, and worse all the representatives do is send you a form email.
Vote
1
Another example of American, crony capitalism. This is what Senator Warren is fighting against.
1
@Tom Walker
I believe it is Bernie Sanders you mean. Elizabeth Warren's positions on the matter may now be similar to Bernie's, but she is far more likely to back off on these once she gets in (i.e. easy come, easy go). Warren signaled to the corporate establishment about three months ago that she is all about "revival" and not revolution. This coincided with her getting positive press from mainstream media.
1
Corporate influence over and control of our government is the true “deep state.”
3
This sickens me.
Republican fiscal policies have one objective: The transfer to wealth from the working and middle classes to the wealthy. I have the impression that their vision of America is a feudal society where the lower classes exist to serve the elite.
2
I hate the tax rules. Adopt a progressive tax scale, no deductions, no exceptions, pay up, period.
1
Another example of the disingenuousness of Republican fiscal policy. They're goal, all along, was tax breaks for the rich and corporations. Now they've seized the Holy Grail. The government descends deeper into deficit and public debt skyrockets (Remember when Republicans claimed this was an existential threat?). The tax burden moves from the so-called investor class and corporations and onto wage and salary earners -- don't forget the impact of the payroll taxes too. And the dupes keep reelecting them!
1
I pay more taxes than Amazon and FedEx combined!
1
Fed Ex does not provide any benefits to its drivers . They are considered independent contractors so the underfunded pension liability is odd since it is a benefit that the drivers do not have. Must be those at the top who get the pensions so that is where they put some of those freebies the CEO and ilk got from the tax cut bill.
These guys keep spewing the same ridiculous nonsense over and over again showcasing their shove it in-your-face greed is somehow good for the rest of us who are mandated to pay more as they pay less or zilch.
I say ship over the holidays using another shipping company but knowing the ethos of Smith, he will start laying off his independent contract drivers during the holidays without even a turkey or ham for compensation.
Pass the Unions anyone?
2
@RB123 - for the underfunded pensions, consider the fact that FedEx is a very large company, with airlines, the former Kinko's stores and lots of other divisions. So there are a lot of people officially classified as employees, though I have no idea how many of them might qualify for pension - not sure if the pension funding bit might not have also included corporate matching for 401(k) plans.
Consider the Post Office for shipping. No corporate shenanigans there.
1
The people who still support Trump do not care about the fact that billionaire get away with paying less or no taxes due to Trump's tax cuts. They care about some kind of idealistic (lefty?) delusion of greatness.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America".
My trust is in Pete Buttigieg to wipe the White House clean of Donald Trump, and guide the misguided Republicans back to a place of truth and honesty.
2
The use of and damage to publicly paid for roads by fedex and amazon are massive - and neither pays it’s fair share esp. for the roads we built them.
3
And not even one Republican Congressmen or Senator has or will complain about the enormous tax breaks and benefits that allow companies such as Fed Ex to pay little or no federal income taxes while middle class and working class tax payers struggle to make ends meet while paying their fair share of taxes.
Can someone reconcile these two statements in the article for me:
1. In the 2017 fiscal year, FedEx owed more than $1.5 billion in taxes.
2. Company officials said FedEx paid $2 billion in total federal income taxes over the past 10 years.
1
I don't know why they don't use Eisenhower tax rates. 70%, which sounds like a lot – but which can be reduced to 0% if investments truly are made in building factories and hiring people. Donald Trump's tax bill, just like Ronald Reagan's and George W. Bush's, was simply a free money giveaway to the rich and corporations.
8
The concept of giving tax breaks in the hope of getting something (investments, jobs, whatever) is grossly misguided. It's like giving me your paycheck and hoping I'll give you some of it back.
Availability of tax credits or deductions for actual jobs or investments, is sensible - A company can't benefit unless it's done what was intended. Most of our tax deductions are based this way; we can deduct for charitable donations or interest we've actually paid, but we don't just get a deduction in the hope that we might someday donate or pay something.
Reagan's "trickle-down" theory didn't trickle down to us, but his corporate tax breaks gushed into corp profits. He assured us we'd just grow out of the Reagan deficit, but we didn't. Bush Jr's. tax breaks didn't create investments either, but changed from Clinton's balanced budgets into large deficit spending. We're now seeing Trump's big tax breaks create Trillion/year deficits, more corp profit, but (big surprise) not investments or jobs.
Our past Wisconsin governor tried various tax breaks and tax credits, without connecting them to actual performance. After 8 years we've lost a lot of revenue, underfunded roads and schools, but haven't even gained as many jobs as he promised in his first term.
Companies invest when they can benefit financially; they don't just spend money whenever they have extra.
Anyone who disagrees with my comment; just send me some money, maybe I'll send some of it back, maybe.
7
And the investment in cleaner vehicles? They still drive high polluting trucks. I'm cutting back on stuff -- less stuff means less delivery.
2
The tax bill allowed Smith and Fed Ex to buy back stock and pay increased dividends, which in turn raised stock price and hence the value of the company. How much do you want to bet that Smith turned this good news into a bonanza for himself by playing up company growth to his board? And more importantly, how does this make the country, not just individual wealthy individuals, stronger?
3
John Kenneth Galbraith gave a pithy explanation of the trickle-down theory. If you feed a horse enough oats some will pass through undigested. For poor farm children who warm their feet in the winter by standing in animal dung, it's an added benefit.
We should start calling the Trump Tax Cut what it is, namely a wealth transfer from those who pay taxes with their "hard earned" money to the wealthiest people on the planet.
7
As I read this article, an envelope from the IRS is on my desk, right next to me, unopened. I know what's in it: a summons to pay up, the last $ 154 of a total of $ 857, for which they've hounded me for more 2 years.
5
Change your name to Trump and don’t pay! Seriously, wouldn’t it be grand if you could get away with it?
1
And don't forget that those companies that Trump claimed benefitted from his tariffs did not do much either. The American steel industries had more available money because Trump raised the price of Chinese steel with tariffs and what did American steel do, did they sell more steel with their less competition now and employ more workers? No, they raised their prices.
3
And the investor class won again, on the backs of the rest of us.
4
It's good to see the analysis and I'm looking forward to more on the effects of the tax cut. But surprised? Outraged?? Of course not. Business reacted to the cuts exactly as they said they would before it was passed: Big stock buybacks and not much change in capital expenditures from previous plans. Sure, some companies threw out some chump change to employees with some raises and small bonuses, but now they're already looking to cut those back. Oh, and add another trillion to the debt. Republicans successfully rewarded their big money donors.
3
Yes. Repubs main attraction is to cut taxes. That's their program. Cut taxes remove revenue and lower government services. In 1980 the corporations paid 35% federal taxes now 11%.Debt increasing faster then ever and money borrowed mainly goes to defense. Last tax cut went to buy back stocks to increase shareholder value not job creation. Most new productivity changes was more robots and AI not jobs.
3
It is fascinating to me how the left hates big companies, but then passes so many odorous, burdensome regulations that only big companies can survive; how the left hates profit and wants to tax it out of existance, but then when a company actually follows all the rules, laws, and regulations and doesn't have income to tax it is then villified. FedEx only exists because the USPS has been an abject failure.
3
Profit, is at all time record levels and has been for 30 years.
Workers have not been paid.
Not worried about Profit.
Profit, is getting along wonderfully well in the United States.
Workers are struggling and overburdened, underpaid and played by Russian psy-ops, into hating one another along lines of color and gender.
4
@Bill Clayton -- "USPS has been an abject failure".
FUNNY! Tell FedEx you want to send a document to any address in the country for 55¢.
Wall Street Journal article headline from 2014: "For FedEx and UPS, a Cheaper Route: the Post Office"
One quote "For FedEx alone, the post office delivers an average of 2.2 million packages a day, or about 30% of the express-mail company's total U.S. ground segment."
People who use the phrase "burdensome regulations" should reflect on the fact that regulations are in place because of abusive actions by companies, forcing regulations to protect the public.
I don't know about "the left", but most people in the country should be more upset about the GOP tax plan because of two things:
1 - the only permanent tax cuts were for corporations and wealthy people. Everyone else's tax cuts expire.
2 - the tax giveaway reduced federal revenues, meaning the party that pretends to hate deficits, built guaranteed deficits into the plan.
If you wonder who'll end up paying more in #2, re-read #1.
2
@Bill Clayton thank you. Once the host dies, what will the parasites feed on?
1
Trickle-down economy has indeed been reduced to a trickle, with many part-time, low-paying, no benefits jobs. Meanwhile, no wonder the stock market is rising if corporate profits are, except that not everyone benefits equally from it. But the establishment of 401k’s ensured that most Americans would feel that they have a stake in the market instead of regular savings (whose interest Trump /GOP are trying to drive to 0 or less). Extreme capitalism in full bloom.
3