Fox & Friends defends FedEx paying zero income taxes
Published
Citation From the November 18, 2019, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): The New York Times had a headline yesterday, and it was quite tantalizing: “How FedEx cut its tax bill to zero." And in the story it said that FedEx cut its tax bill from $1.5 billion to zero, the effective tax rate from 34% to less than zero. And the whole point of it was, you know, they utilized the Trump tax cuts to get that. But what they said was the tax cut was supposed to encourage capital investments, but the Times didn't do that. That's what The New York -- rather, FedEx did not do that, according to the Times.
...
PETE HEGSETH (GUEST CO-HOST): If you know anything about [FedEx Chairman and CEO] Frederick Smith, he has been a supporter of Republican and GOP causes over the years. May that be the reason why The New York Times decided to focus on FedEx?
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST) : He founded the company. He said that in 2017, they owed $1.5 billion in taxes. The next year, because of the president's tax cut, they owed less than zero. Brought their tax rate from 34 to zero.
DOOCY: Right. But they did invest over $6 billion back in the company, which was not--
EARHARDT: Which only helps our country. He was on with Larry Kudlow when Larry Kudlow -- before he became the chairman of the National Economic Council. He had a radio show. And he back in 2017 said -- the chairman of FedEx -- “If you make the United States a better place to invest, there is no question in my mind that we would see a renaissance of capital investment."
HEGSETH: So $6 billion back into the economy as opposed to $1.5 billion in taxes. How much money does The New York Times pay in taxes?
DOOCY: Well according to Charles Payne, they paid zero one year.
HEGSETH: Oh, zero.