Warren Buffet says 800 US companies could wipe out income tax — but 88 profitable giants paid the IRS $0 in 2025

In 2024, Berkshire Hathaway was the highest taxpayer, contributing a whopping $26.8 billion (2) — which was around 5% of all corporate income taxes collected by the government.

At Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting, Buffet said this (3): "If we send in a check like we did last year, we send in over $5 billion to the US federal government, and if 800 other companies had done the same thing no other person in the United States would've had to pay a dime of federal taxes." No income taxes, social security taxes or estate taxes.

Profiting off policy changes

The United States taxes resident corporations at a flat rate of 21%. As outlined in the report (1), corporate tax avoidance has increased this year, due in part to two packages: One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). This tax rate sat at 35% (4) before the cuts.

As per the 21% federal income rate and the total income of the 88 corporations listed, they should have paid a collective $22.1 billion (5) in 2025. Instead, they received $4.7 billion in rebates.

Companies like Tesla, United Airlines, PayPal, Coinbase, CVS, Walt Disney and dozens more have circumvented income taxes. Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy revealed the top three federal tax avoiders (6) are Amazon, Meta and Alphabet (the parent company of Google and YouTube).

The research cited the companies used accelerated depreciation (7), the federal research and experimentation (R&E) credit, the Foreign-Derived Deduction Eligible Income (FDDEI) deduction and executive stock options to bypass income taxes.

The little guys lose out

For small businesses and households, news like this can sting, especially with current inflation, cost of living pressures and widespread uncertainty. Particularly when many of these companies are making headlines for big AI plans and mass job casualties as a result.