Warren, Schakowsky Hit 5 Big Pharma Companies for Paying Zero in Federal Taxes, Lobbying to Extend Trump Tax Loopholes
“Our tax code has been skewed to benefit wealthy pharmaceutical corporations, enabling them to profit off Americans, charging them the highest drug prices in the world, without paying their fair share of taxes.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) wrote to five major pharmaceutical companies, calling them out for paying $0 in federal taxes for profit earned last year, despite earning billions of dollars. These companies, which are Abbvie, Pfizer, Amgen, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson, have taken advantage of tax loopholes created by President Trump’s 2017 tax bill and have lobbied for even more tax giveaways.
“This alarming fact illustrates just one of the ways in which our tax code has been skewed to benefit wealthy pharmaceutical corporations, enabling them to profit off Americans, charging them the highest drug prices in the world, without paying their fair share of taxes,” wrote the lawmakers.
The passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) by President Donald Trump created new incentives for pharmaceutical companies to avoid paying taxes by holding their profits and intellectual property abroad. As a result, pharmaceutical companies have engaged in complex tax planning to move their intellectual property and production facilities out of the United States to tax shelters like Ireland and Bermuda to take advantage of this new regime.
Thanks to President Trump’s international taxation regime, these top pharmaceutical companies have paid almost nothing in U.S. taxes since 2018 while raking in billions of dollars in profit.
- Johnson & Johnson paid zero dollars in federal taxes since 2018, while raking in over $594 billion in profits during that time.
- Abbvie paid zero dollars in federal taxes since 2018, while raking in over $330 billion in profits during that time.
- Pfizer paid zero dollars in federal taxes since 2018, while raking in over $429 billion in profits during that time.
- Amgen paid zero dollars in federal taxes since 2018, while raking in over $186 billion in profits during that time.
- Merck paid zero dollars in federal taxes since 2018, while raking in over $355 billion in profits during that time.
“Now, pharmaceutical companies want to extend these tax giveaways from the TCJA, and they are lining up to make their case on Capitol Hill,” wrote the lawmakers.
Indeed, lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry rose in 2024 compared to 2023, as the fight over extending the TCJA began.
“Congress should not slash Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or other assistance to Americans trying to afford their prescription medication in order to pay for massive tax breaks for Big Pharma companies making record profits,” concluded the lawmakers.
Senator Warren and Representative Schakowsky are pushing the companies for answers on their role in extending massive tax cuts for the pharmaceutical industry.
###
Previous Article