Thirty large and profitable United States corporations paid no income taxes in 2008 through 2010, said a study on Thursday that arrives as Congress faces rising demands for tax reform but seems unable or unwilling to act, Reuters reported on Thursday.Pepco Holdings Incorporated, a Washington, DC, area power company, had the lowest effective tax rate, at negative 57.6 per cent, among the 280 Fortune 500 companies studied.The statutory US corporate income tax rate is 35 per cent, one of the highest in the world; but over the 2008-2010 period, very few of the companies studied paid it, said the report.The average effective tax rate for the companies over the period was 18.5 per cent, said Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, both think tanks.Their report also listed General Electric Company, Paccar Incorporated PG&E Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation, Boeing Company and NiSource Incorporated as among the 30 that paid no taxes.Corporations would say rightly that the loopholes that let them slash their taxes were perfectly legal, the report said.But that does not mean that low-tax corporations bear no responsibility. The laws were not enacted in a vacuum; they were adopted in response to relentless corporate lobbying, threats and campaign support, the report said.Some of the 30 companies disputed the reports findings.A Pepco spokesman said it pays all its required taxes.Boeing paid its taxes between 2008-2010 . Our effective income tax rate was 26.5 per cent, 22.9 per cent, 33.6 per cent in 2010, 2009, 2008, said a spokesman for the aerospace group.As Congress and the Obama administration struggle with a sluggish economy and high deficits, corporations are pressing Capitol Hill for more tax breaks and a lower corporate rate.Taxes are on the agenda of the congressional super committee tasked with finding at least $1.2tn in additional budget savings by November 23, but it is so far deadlocked across a familiar divide -- Republicans refusing any tax increases, Democrats defending social programs.On Tuesday, a panel of budget experts warned super committee members they would fail the country if they did not meet their goal. Financial markets have been waiting for many months for signs that Washington can get its financial house in order, but few have been forthcoming.The report referred back to the 1986 tax reform pushed through by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, who approved the largest corporate tax increase in US history, largely by ending tax breaks, while cutting individual tax rates.Reagan solved the problem by sweeping away corporate tax loopholes, said the report, which was co-authored by Citizens for Tax Justice chief Robert McIntyre. His research 25 years ago played a key role in convincing Reagan reform was needed.
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