Netflix Posts a Record $5.3 Billion in Profits and a Federal Tax Rate of Just 1.1 percent

[BeckyDem]

February 1, 2022

Streaming giant Netflix reportedly added fewer new subscribers than anticipated in 2021, but the company still reported record profits and continued its long-running tax avoidance streak. Released last week, the company’s 2021 financial report shows it doubled its profits to $5.3 billion from the previous year and reported an effective federal corporate income tax rate of 1.1 percent.

At a time when many small businesses face pandemic-related challenges, Netflix is among large corporations that are handsomely profiting from changing consumer behavior. Its pre-tax U.S. income of $5.3 billion is almost twice the record-breaking $2.7 billion in profits it enjoyed in 2020. The company’s current federal income tax bill is $58 million, which is just 1.1 percent of its $5.3 billion in pre-tax profits for the year.

The tax law enacted under former President Donald Trump, which lowered the statutory tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, has been in effect for four years, and Netflix has reported current federal corporate income tax rates of either 1 percent or nothing in each of those years. This outcome will be very unlikely for Netflix to replicate in the future if Congress enacts the minimum corporate tax provision included in the Build Back Better Act passed by the House of Representatives in November.

Anyone astonished by the company’s tax avoidance this year must not have been paying attention last year. Or the year before that. Or the year before that. In the four years since the Trump tax cuts took effect, Netflix has enjoyed $10.5 billion of U.S. pretax income and has reported just $81 million of current federal income tax, for a total four-year effective tax rate of 0.8 percent.
https://itep.org/netflix-posts-record-profits-federal-tax-rate-of-just-1-percent/


( Unconscionable)

[mnhtnbb]

1. And they just raised the subscription price!

[BeckyDem]

2. I know! The greed is good crowd.

So many hypocrites in the entertainment world.

[Midnight Writer]

3. Corporations are more powerful than people or the government. They will win out, always.