AECOM’s success in reducing its 2018 corporate tax liability from potentially tens of millions of dollars down to zero may seem like magic. But the engineering giant’s ability to avoid federal taxes—which landed it on the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy’s list of 60 Fortune 500 companies that avoided all federal income taxes last year—is based partly on the combination of Congress’s corporate tax cut and tax credits, including those available for research and development, tax experts say.

研发

Unlike tax deductions, each tax credit dollar knocks a dollar off a firm’s tax bill. And while R&D credits are typically associated with biotech or defense firms, engineers and architects qualify based on money spent through trial-and-error process improvements and new technology. AECOM (NYSE-ACM) is the only engineer and contractor on the list.

In total, AECOM earned a $122-million rebate on its fiscal 2018 federal taxes. That tied it for third place on the institute’s list with a negative tax rate (meaning the government pays the company, not the other way around) of 51% on $238 million in U.S. income.

The institute, a nonprofit think tank, draws attention to corporate tax avoidance. Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the institute, said the story is not about any single company, but rather that 60 Fortune 500 firms either paid no federal taxes in 2018 or got multimillion-dollar rebates.

“When any particular business or individual isn’t paying some amount, that amount has to be made up in some other way,” Gardner says. “When you have a situation where some companies are paying a little and other companies are paying a lot, that undermines people’s view of the fairness of the federal tax law.”


道德政策涵盖税收

AECOM的公司税收伦理政策强调了该公司有义务缴纳其合法所欠的所有税款，并指出了未能遵守该政策的“声誉损害”的可能性。在一份声明中，AECOM称该研究所的研究为“误导性”，尤其是因为它专注于联邦公司税。新利18备用该公司在一份声明中说，该研究所汇编了“使用税收费用的狭义定义，而AECOM继续遵守所有适用的税法”。

Meanwhile, AECOM’s $122-million federal tax rebate, while substantial, doesn’t tell the whole story. It only covers the U.S. portion, and the Los Angeles-based firm’s final, global tax bill is based on worldwide revenue and operations. When all the taxes paid by AECOM to other governments across the world are taken into account along with its U.S. tax situation, the engineering giant still managed to stay in the black on its yearly tax liability, though at a more modest $19.6 million.

AECOM也从2017年减税和就业法案中得到了很大的推动，该法案对《联邦税法》进行了修改。该公司声明说，它有助于降低公司有效的所得税率。

Like other companies, AECOM was able to bring forward $58 million after the 2017 legislative changes unlocked the value of past R&D credits the company had stored up, said Barry Fischman, CPA and a partner in the tax and business services unit of accounting firm Marcum LLP. In particular, the legislation allowed companies to much more quickly capture tax write-offs related to the depreciation of assets and equipment, in some cases over the first few years.

这是AECOM的潜在肥沃基础，在过去的几年中，该公司进行了许多收购，反过来又使公司获得了福利。而且，与其他公司一样，AECOM从将公司税率降低到21％，从35％的人受益。With millions in deferred taxes, this opened up significant savings for AECOM, which essentially got to knock 14% off its pent-up tax obligations carried over from recent years, according to Fischman and Michael D’Addio, a principal in Marcum’s tax and business services unit.

尽管AECOM取得了成功，但Fischman还是折价了它依赖于许多有利因素（包括2017年联邦税收制度大修）的想法。Fischman说：“很难仅明确地说，该公司采用了重点税收计划来减少税收。”“在今年，它们都是合法的税收节省。”