In a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Public Interest Report Group, D.C.-based Pepco Holdings Inc. and Falls Church-based Computer Sciences Corp. were named to the “Dirty Thirty” list of Fortune 500 companies that “spend big on lobbying and avoid taxes,” according to the group.
Based on corporate taxes, U.S. Public Interest Report Group claims that between 2008 and 2010, Pepco paid a negative federal tax rate, which returned $508 million in tax rebates despite making $882 million in domestic profit over the same period.
Bob Hainey, manager of media relations at Pepco (NYSE:POM) , said Pepco paid $1.2 billion in real estate taxes, payroll taxes, personal property taxes, delivery taxes, use taxes and gross receipts tax between 2008 and 2010.
“Over the three-year period noted in the report, [Pepco] invested approximately $2 billion of capital into its operations of which over 50 percent of this amount was allowable as a current deduction against taxable income,” Hainey said in a statement.
He also states that policy actions such as accelerated depreciation are economic incentives, not “loopholes” that “policy makers put in place to achieve economic objectives – stimulate investment and create jobs.”
U.S. PIRG reports that Falls Church-based CSC had a tax rebate of $305.1 million with a profit of almost $1.7 billion from 2008 to 2010.
A spokesman for CSC declined to comment.
Also listed in the report was General Electric, Wells Fargo, FedEx, Verizon Communications and Boeing, amongst others.
