Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft – collectively dubbed the “Silicon Six” – are accused of avoiding almost $278bn (£211bn) in US corporate income tax over the past decade, according to new analysis from the Fair Tax Foundation (FTF).
The six tech giants reportedly paid an average corporate income tax rate of 18.8% over the past 10 years, significantly below the 29.7% statutory rate for US businesses earning equivalent profits.
According to the FTF, these companies earned $11tn in revenue and $2.5tn in profit during the period under review.
The FTF report, first published by The Guardian, claims the companies have embedded tax avoidance into their corporate structures.
When excluding one-off repatriation tax payments related to historic tax avoidance, the average tax contribution drops further to 16.1%.
FTF also said the companies overstated their tax contributions by about $82bn by including contingency taxes that were unlikely to be paid.
Chief executive Paul Monaghan described these practices as “aggressive” and accused the firms of leveraging both economic and political influence through extensive lobbying.
The findings emerge amid heightened scrutiny of US tech influence, punctuated by appearances of executives like Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg at former president Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
The report also coincides with negotiations between the UK and US, in which tax concessions for US firms are reportedly under discussion.
Among the six, Netflix recorded the lowest tax-to-profit ratio at 14.7%, while Microsoft had the highest at 20.4%.
Amazon’s tax conduct was described as the worst overall due to “obvious profit shifting”, though its corporate tax rate of 19.6% remained higher than that of Meta (15.4%) and Apple (18.4%).
Responding to the findings, Amazon stated its UK operations and tax payments were fully declared and compliant with UK law, adding that its substantial investment and low margins contributed to its lower tax rate.
Meta, Netflix and Amazon all maintained that they comply with applicable tax rules in each jurisdiction where they operate. Alphabet, Microsoft and Apple declined to comment.
