Nike has made $4.1 billion in profits over the last three years but didn’t pay a dime in federal income tax for its earnings, according to new reports by the New York Times.
The publication’s latest findings revealed that the sportswear giant was among the companies that were able to evade federal income tax payments legally for the last three years, even though the brand made $4.1 billion in that time frame combined according to new data compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
The publication also notes that the Tax Reform Plan passed in 2017 by the Republican majority Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump was one of the driving factors that helped top-grossing companies shrink their tax bill as it reduced the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. In some cases, many also employed a range of legal deductions and exemptions further reducing their bill.
In addition, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill known as the CARES Act was passed last year by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in an effort to assist businesses and families in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation temporarily allowed businesses to use their losses in 2020 to offset profits earned in previous years, according to the institute.
U.S. Senator of Vermont Bernie Sanders also chimed in on the discrepancy via Twitter. “If you paid $120 for a pair of Nike Air Force 1 shoes, you paid more to Nike than it paid in federal income taxes over the past 3 years, while it made $4.1 billion in profits and Nike’s founder, Phil Knight, became over $23 billion richer,” Sanders wrote.
