Today we released our 2012 “Ferraro 500” list, which reorders Fortune 500 companies based on the size of their Unrecognized Tax Benefit reserves. This annual study always has some interesting results and outliers. For example, Fortune 500 corporate profits are up 16%, but their tax reserves are down 5% (along with total US corporate tax collections for fiscal 11 according to the Treasury Dept.):
| (in millions) |
Profit |
Reserves |
Collections |
|
2010 |
$708,554.10 |
$197,725.50 |
$191,437.00 |
|
2011 |
$824,542.70 |
$187,545.60 |
$181,085.00 |
|
$ Change |
$115,988.60 |
-$10,179.90 |
-$10,352.00 |
|
% Change |
16.37% |
-5.15% |
-5.41% |
The Tax Reserves of the top five companies are Pfizer, which set aside $7.309 billion to cover potential taxes; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., $7.189 billion; Microsoft, $6.935 billion; General Electric, $6.384 billion; and AT&T, with $5.853 billion. The details behind these Unrecognized Tax Benefit reserves, found in the tax accrual work papers and elsewhere, often make for valuable tax whistleblower submissions.
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