Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday identified three large companies whose taxes he would raise if he were elected president, arguing that they receive tax subsidies under the current tax code.
The Vermont senator said General Electric, Boeing and Verizon all would lose tax breaks under his administration.
All three “not only pay nothing in federal income taxes, they actually got a rebate from the IRS,” Sanders said Friday at a town hall in Iowa.
His campaign pointed to an analysis from the left-leaning research organization Citizens for Tax Justice to substantiate the claim that the companies pay no taxes.
From 2008 to 2013, according to the analysis, GE made $33.9 billion in domestic profits and received a total tax refund of more than $2.9 billion. Boeing made more than $26.4 billion in U.S. profits and received a total tax refund of $401 million. For Verizon, the numbers were $42.4 billion in U.S. profits and a total tax refund of $732 million. In the past, businesses named in the group’s reports have denied their findings.
Sanders released a list of seven other companies who would lose tax subsidies when he, as president, would eliminate tax breaks and tighten tax rules: Bank of America, Citigroup, Pfizer, FedEx, Honeywell, Merck and Corning.
During his campaign for the Democratic nomination, Sanders has not shied away from naming industries, companies or individuals whose businesses he would upend as president. In addition to pledging to eliminate tax breaks for corporations, he has called for breaking up Wall Street banks. Earlier this month, he singled out Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein as an example of Wall Street greed.
