Looks like Verizon isn’t feeling the Bern these days.
The U.S. wireless carrier has cried foul in response to claims from presidential candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders that Verizon is among the top 10 corporate tax avoiders in the country.
In a press release distributed at the end of last week, Verizon “strongly refuted” Sanders’ assertion and said claims that it dodges its fair share of the tax burden are “demonstrably false.”
“Verizon is a solid, American company and is among the largest corporate taxpayers and investors in the nation,” Verizon chief communications officer Jim Gerace said in a statement. “We take issue with those who falsely claim that we avoid paying our fair share of taxes. This campaign of misinformation and inaccurate data needs to stop.”
According to figures released by the Sanders campaign, Verizon received refunds from the IRS totaling $732 million on profits of $42.4 billion during the six-year period from 2008 to 2013, making its effective tax rate negative two percent.
The Sanders campaign has also claimed Verizon “stashed $1.8 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes” and said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam wants to raise the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security while himself pocketing millions in compensation each year.
Verizon, however, has shot back by saying it “complies with all tax laws and pays the taxes it owes under the law” and pointed out its taxes are verified by an independent auditor.
The carrier said it paid a total of $8.4 billion in taxes last year, up from nearly $7.2 billion in taxes paid in 2014 and the almost $3.8 billion it paid in 2013.
Despite paying a combined $15.6 billion in taxes over the past two years, Verizon said it has still managed to invest $35 billion in capital expenditures to improve its wireless and wireline services in the country.
“It’s time for the campaign rhetoric to cease,” Gerace said. “Here’s the bottom line: Verizon is one of the largest taxpayers and investors in America both in terms of people and capital. Any claim that the company has avoided paying its fair share of taxes is simply wrong.”
The Sanders campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Verizon’s statements mark the second time in two months the carrier has seen fit to respond to allegations related to its tax practices, though it is the first time the company addressed Sanders directly.
In a February public policy post, Verizon attempted to set the record straight on its tax history and called for tax reform.
“There is wide bi-partisan agreement in Washington that the tax code is broken and needs to be fixed so that all Americans might benefit. Verizon agrees,” Verizon vice-president of Federal Government Relations Mark Mullet wrote.
Verizon said the U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent is “burdensome” and said “the answer is to lower the U.S. rate to a competitive level and close the tax loopholes to assure companies actually pay that rate.”
Sanders, too, has consistently called for the closure of tax loopholes, but aims to enforce the existing 35 percent tax rate.
As part of his plan to fix the corporate tax structure, Sanders has proposed five major reforms: requiring U.S. companies to pay taxes on all of their income by ending the deferral of foreign source income; preventing corporations from claiming to be from another country if their management and control operations are primarily located in the U.S.; repealing loopholes and tax subsidies that benefit oil, natural gas, and coal special interests; preventing American companies from avoiding U.S. taxes through corporate inversion; and closing loopholes that allow U.S. corporations to inflate or accelerate foreign tax credits to pay lower taxes on their U.S. taxable income.
