Study: Netflix Pays Its Top Executives Nearly 3x More Than Its Federal Tax Bill

(L-R) Nicole Avant and CEO of Netflix Ted Sarandos attend the 2024 Netflix SAG Celebration
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix

The left-wing streamer Netflix pays its executives more money than it pays in federal taxes, according to a new study of the country’s most flagrant corporate “tax dodgers.”

But Netflix isn’t alone.

Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies found that 35 companies paid more to their top five executives than they did in U.S. taxes in at least two of the five years under review, 2018 to 2022.

The study comes amid tax season for American households, which are required each year to fork over an ever-larger chunk of their income to Uncle Sam.

Netflix paid its top five executives $652 million during the five year period that saw the streamer pay $236 million in federal income tax, which comes out to an enviable tax rate of just 1.6 percent.

“Both kinds of corporate misbehavior—underpaying taxes and overpaying executives—ultimately make working families the victim through smaller paychecks and diminished public services,” David Kass, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said in the study.

Tesla paid founder Elon Musk and the other four highest-paid executives $2.5 billion during that period, the study found. But despite $4.4 billion in net profits, the company paid nothing in cumulative federal income taxes and instead got back a net $1 million in tax refunds.

T-Mobile also received a refund to the tune of $80 million after paying its executives $675 million.

Netflix continues to work with former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama through a production deal under which the Obamas produce movies and TV series.

Among the former first couple’s recent efforts is the Julia Roberts movie Leave the World Behind and the documentary American Symphony.

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Authored by David Ng via Breitbart March 16th 2024