Raphael Stevens

The current United States tax code allows some of the biggest company names in the country to not pay any federal corporate income tax.
In fact, at least 55 of the largest corporations in America paid no federal corporate income taxes on their 2020 profits, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The companies include names like Whirlpool, FedEx, Nike, HP and Salesforce.

“If a large, very profitable company isn’t paying the federal income tax, then we have a real fairness problem on our hands,” Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), told CNBC.
What’s more, it is entirely legal and within the parameters of the tax code that corporations can end up paying no federal corporate income tax, which costs the U.S. government billions of dollars in lost revenue.
“[There’s] a bucket of corporate tax breaks that are deliberately in the tax code … . And overall, they cost the federal government roughly $180 billion each year. And for comparison, the corporate tax brings in about $370 billion of revenue a year,” Chye-Ching Huang, executive director of the NYU Tax Law Center, told CNBC, citing research from the Tax Foundation.
CNBC reached out to FedEx, Nike, Salesforce and HP for comment. They either declined to provide a statement or did not respond before publication.
The 55 corporations cited by ITEP would have paid a collective total of $8.5 billion. Instead, they received $3.5 billion in tax rebates, collectively draining $12 billion from the U.S. government, according to the institute. The figures don’t include corporations that paid only some but not all of these taxes.

“I think the fundamental issue here is there are two different ways in which corporations book their profits,” Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, told CNBC. “The amount of profits that corporations may be reporting for financial purposes may be very different from the profits that they are reporting [for tax purposes.]”
Some tax expenditures, which come in many different forms, are used by some companies to take advantage of rules that enable them to lower their effective tax rates.
For example, Gardner’s research into Amazon’s taxes from 2018 to 2021 showed a reported $79 billion of pretax U.S. income. Amazon paid a collective $4 billion in federal corporate income tax in those four years, equating to an effective annual tax rate of 5.1%, according to Gardner’s ITEP report, about a quarter of the federal corporate tax rate of 21%.
Amazon told CNBC in a statement, “In 2021, we reported $2.3 billion in federal income tax expense, $5.2 billion in other federal taxes, and more than $4 billion in state and local taxes of all types. We also collected an additional $22 billion in sales taxes for U.S. states and localities.”
One controversial form of federal tax expenditure is the offshoring of profits. The foreign corporate income tax — anywhere between 0% and 10.5% — can incentivize the shifting of profits to tax havens.
For example, Whirlpool, a U.S. company known for manufacturing home appliances both in the U.S. and Mexico, was cited in a recent case involving both U.S. and Mexican taxes.
“[Whirlpool] did that by having the Mexican operation owned by a Mexican company with no employees, and then having that Mexican company owned by a Luxembourg holding company that had one employee,” Huang told CNBC. “And then it tried to claim that due to the combination of the U.S., Mexico and Luxembourg tax rules … it was trying to take advantage of the disconnect between all of those tax systems to to avoid tax and all of those countries and of court said, no, that goes too far.”
Whirlpool defended its actions in a statement to CNBC: “The case before the Sixth Circuit has never been about trying to avoid U.S. taxes on the profits earned in Mexico. This tax dispute has always been about when those profits are taxed in the U.S. In fact, years before the original Tax Court decision in 2020, Whirlpool had already paid U.S. tax on 100% of the profits it earned in Mexico. Simply put, the IRS thought Whirlpool should have paid those U.S. taxes earlier.”
Watch the video above to learn about how the most profitable companies in the country maneuver through the complicated tax system and what policy solutions may close some loopholes.

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A survey of 4,000 visitors in 2021 by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority showed a dramatic rise in the number of people bringing children with them.
In 2021, 21% of tourists had kids tagging along versus 5% in 2019, before the pandemic. 
This year, with kids on school break, it’s become so common to see parents pushing strollers through a casino, that even a casino executive barely noticed it.
Yet while families may be helping Vegas broaden its brand, not everyone is excited about the boom in young visitors. 

It may not be Orlando, but Las Vegas is giving other family-friendly destinations a run for the money. 
“Sin City” once marketed itself to people with naughty inclinations with the slogan “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas.” Now what happens in Vegas may include Ferris wheels, sporting events and Instagram-worthy family photos.  

A survey of 4,000 visitors in 2021 by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority showed a dramatic rise in the number of people bringing children with them. In 2021, 21% of tourists had kids tagging along versus 5% in 2019, before the pandemic. 
Overall, Las Vegas had 32 million visitors in 2021, which was down significantly from 42 million in 2019, according to the survey. It also indicates that visitors were younger, more ethnically diverse and more likely to travel from western states within driving distance of Las Vegas.
The authority suspects the rise in family travel to Vegas was a blip, prompted by the pandemic. Families, they say, had limited travel options in 2021, with international travel still problematic and Covid concerns top of mind. Many opted for road trips rather than plane flights. 
This year, with kids on school break, it’s become so common to see parents pushing strollers through a casino, that even a casino executive barely noticed it. The executive, who declined to be named, laughed and shrugged when a CNBC reporter commented on the sight. 

The Campbells came to see the sites and sounds of Las Vegas from North Carolina.
Contessa Brewer | CNBC

Families from the West Coast weren’t the only ones who traveled to Sin City with their kids in tow.

Mark and Lori Campbell live in North Carolina. They say they’ve vacationed up and down the East Coast, so they wanted to do something different. For spring break this week, they decided to bring their children, 11-year-old Madison and 14-year-old Miles, to Las Vegas.
“I knew the kids would be kind of blown away by the lights in the city and the activity and the people,” Mark Campbell said, while strolling by a Chippendales photo opportunity on Fremont Street.  
The resort city’s entertainment options are more welcoming to younger audiences these days, too.
Maisie Rojas, a 15-year-old from Colorado, only had eyes for superstar boy band BTS. She carried a photo of her favorite member of the group, V. Her parents brought her to Las Vegas to celebrate her birthday with a BTS concert last weekend at Allegiant Stadium.
She’s also a repeat visitor here with her family. “It’s cool. I like it,” she said.  
Her five-year-old sister Giselle was more enthusiastic. “It’s amazing!” she said. The lights are her favorite thing about Vegas, she added.    

The Rojas family visiting Las Vegas from Colorado came to see the BTS concert at Allegiant stadium.  
Contessa Brewer | CNBC

New York parents Anto and Mel Ounanian considered doing the traditional Orlando Disney World vacation this Easter break, but instead opted to take their family of four to Las Vegas. It was less expensive, and less stressful, for them to travel to Vegas and dodge the crowds at Disney.
“Vegas is just a lot more low key and there’s lots for kids to do there,” said Mel Ounanian.
The Ounanians typically stay at the Bellagio when they travel as a couple. But for this first family trip to Las Vegas with their four-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son, they booked a room at the family-friendly Mandalay Bay. The resort features 11 acres of “aquatic playground” with a wave pool, lagoon and lazy river. 
“A lot of people are kind of surprised by it,” Mel Ounanian said of her friends’ reactions to her family vacation plans. “They think Las Vegas is really more for adults.”
The Ounanians say they plan to spend a lot of time at the pool with their family but will also include an outing at Tournament of Kings at Excalibur and maybe M&M World.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority doesn’t even make that much of an effort to lure families with children, focusing more on conferences, conventions, international tourists and business travelers.
Yet the city has a surprising amount of kid-friendly entertainment options: The “High Roller” Ferris wheel, an outdoor zipline at The Linq, the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, the Hunger Games Experience at MGM Grand, a Marvel Avengers Museum,  immersive art experiences at Area 15 and colorful shows like Cirque de Soleil.
“I think it’s just the diversity and variety of things to do that you can’t find in any other destination and especially in such a compact area,” said Chuck Bowling, president of Mandalay Bay. 

Strollers on the strip. A parent pushes a child through a casino at Mandalay Bay.

The city is also a growing destination for sports. The NFL, in particular, has made a strong push into the city with the Raiders franchise playing at Allegiant Stadium, the NFL Draft later this month and the Super Bowl in 2024. The NHL’s Golden Knights sell out their hockey games with family friendly entertainment. There’s also the WNBA’s Aces. 
While families may help Vegas broaden its brand, not everyone is excited about the boom in young visitors. 
Vegas news and opinion blogger Scott Roeben urged his 100,000 Vital Vegas Twitter followers  to “stop bringing kids to Vegas.” 
“There’s kids asleep in their strollers day and night. And adult things are happening around them. And I just don’t think they need to be here,” Roeben told CNBC, saying he judges parents harshly for bringing children to Las Vegas. (Roeben is not a parent.)

“I’m an advocate for Las Vegas being for grown-ups and children to be everywhere else. Just make it this one place,” he said. “They should enjoy a stroll down Main Street at Disneyland or they should go step on Legos at Legoland –  they don’t they don’t need to be in Las Vegas.”
Not all destinations welcome children. Wynn Las Vegas gained a reputation in its early years for forbidding strollers on its marble pathways through the casino floors, though families now flood in for photos in front of the famous flower-covered carousel. 
Circa in downtown Las Vegas flat-out forbids anyone younger than 21 inside, even those accompanied by parents.  
“We gave up the family business, the bar mitzvah business, the wedding business to focus on customer service,” said Circa CEO and owner Derek Stevens. He said he draws more business by freeing patrons from repeatedly being asked to provide ID at the bars and gaming tables.
Tourism officials and casino executives insist they don’t want Las Vegas to become the next Orlando. 
“I don’t think we want to swing the pendulum that far, because we’re still an adult market. What happens here still stays here. We’re proud of that,” Mandalay Bay’s Bowling said.
Parents who bring their children here, however, said they understand Sin City has a seamier side.
Anto Ounanian shrugged off concerns over his two young children being exposed to the seamier side of the strip, including scantily clad showgirls, inebriated adults and the scent of pot smoke.
“That’s not much different from day-to-day life of Manhattan,” he said. 

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The wait time for a new Lamborghini SUV or super-car is now over 12 months, the automaker’s CEO told CNBC.
Prepandemic, the typical waiting time for Lamborghinis was six to nine months.
“We improved our production, so we believe we improved the output,” CEO Stephen Winkelmann said. “We will see. But this is an opportunity for sure.”

The wait time for a new Lamborghini SUV or super-car is now over 12 months, as demand from wealthy car lovers shows little sign of slowing, the automaker’s chief executive told CNBC on Wednesday.
Despite volatile stock markets and growing economic uncertainty, demand for Lamborghini’s is “as high as ever,” said Stephan Winkelmann, Lamborghini’s CEO.

“It’s incredible,” Winkelmann said. “It’s difficult to make a forecast of what is going to happen and for the rest of the year 2022. But speaking to customers, speaking to all our leaders, we don’t see any any slowdown in terms of orders.”
The result is a waiting list that is now over 12 months. Prepandemic, the typical waiting list for Lamborghinis was six to nine months. Asked when or if the company’s waiting list will ever return to “normal,” Winkelmann said demand for high-end cars may have fundamentally reset to a higher level given the sheer amount of wealth created in the past two years.
“What we see is that around the world there are more and more people able to buy a car like ours,” he said. “After the pandemic, people wanted to reward themselves. And we have the markets which were flooded with money. I think we are in a very high plateau. I don’t know if this is the new normal.”
In addition, Lamborghinis have become a favorite for the young rich, who made their newly minted fortunes from crypto, stocks, tech companies and inheritances. Winkelmann said 70% of Lambo customers will be under 40 in 2025.
“We have definitely seen a shift toward a much younger customer,” he said.

Stephan Winkelmann, CEO of Lamborghini
Courtesy: Lamborghini

Lamborghini reported record profits and production last year driven largely by its SUV, the Urus. Sales increased 19% to $2.1 billion, and it delivered 8,405 cars, up 13% over 2020, including sales of 5,021 Urus models, 2,586 Huracans and 798 Aventadors.
Winkelmann said production this year has not been slowed by supply-chain issues, since the company gets high priority for chips and other parts from parent company Volkswagen. He said production this year is on track to be even higher than last year’s.
“We improved our production, so we believe we improved the output,” he said. “We will see. But this is an opportunity for sure.”
Because of the long wait times, some dealerships are charging customers five- and six-figure markups to get cars that are available sooner, either through other customer cancellations or demo models. One buyer told CNBC he paid $100,000 to get a Urus within a month, rather than wait.
Winkelmann said the company does its best to police pricing practices and prevent “phantom orders” from dealers. But with prices for many preowned Lambos now at 140% of the new sticker price, the profit temptation for dealers with cars available now remains strong.
“We don’t share this view of letting people pay over sticker,” he said. “When we talk to our partners, our dealers, we always are very clear about our position.”

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Israeli historian and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari says the growing risk that Russia may turn to nuclear weapons poses an existential threat to humanity.
“We are maybe in the most dangerous moment in world history since the Cuban missile crisis when a nuclear war is suddenly a possibility,” Harari told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore Wednesday.
Still, Harari warned that it is not for Western allies to try to preempt such action by seeking regime change in Russia.

Israeli author, historian and professor Yuval Noah Harari has spoken out frequently against President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, adding that it has had the unintended consequence of forging greater unity between Europe and the U.S.
Kristof Van Accom | AFP | Getty Images

Seven weeks into Russia’s war with Ukraine, still escalating tensions position society at perhaps the “most dangerous moment in world history since the Cuban missile crisis,” according to Israeli historian and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari.
The “Sapiens” author said the growing risk that Russia may turn to nuclear weapons or other forms of chemical or biological warfare to advance its onslaught posed an existential threat to humanity.

“We are maybe in the most dangerous moment in world history since the Cuban missile crisis when a nuclear war is suddenly a possibility,” Harari told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore Wednesday.
The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 refers to a period of direct conflict between the U.S. and the then-Soviet Union, often considered the closest the world has come to nuclear war.

Anybody who has these fantasies about marching to Moscow, forget about them as quickly as possible.

Yuval Noah Harari
historian, lecturer and author

While acknowledging the current threat of nuclear war is “not very likely,” Harari said that everybody — governments and individuals — should be “very concerned.”
“It’s a possibility, a real possibility that we need to consider. And that’s terrible news for the whole human race,” he said.
Still, Harari warned that it is not for Western allies to try to preempt such action by seeking regime change in Russia. Rather, they should focus on further empowering Ukraine to defeat Russian forces on the ground and restore peace.

“Anybody who has these fantasies about marching to Moscow, forget about them as quickly as possible,” he said, noting that such moves would further provoke the Kremlin.
“The aim of the war should be to protect the freedom of Ukraine, and not to change Moscow. This is up to the Russian people,” he added.

A historic turning point

Harari, a lecturer in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the ultimate outcome of the war could mark a decisive turning point in how governments manage future threats.
If Russian President Vladimir Putin wins the war, he said, more countries would be inclined — or forced — to increase their military spending to the detriment of other public services.
It is not clear how much Russia invests in its defense spending, though Harari put estimates at around 20%. Already, we have seen recent moves or commitments by governments to increase their defense spending. Just days into the conflict, Germany announced it would significantly increase its defense spending to more than 2% of its economic output.

If we are not careful we will slide back into the jungle of war and violence in which countries are forced to spend far more on tanks and missiles.

Yuval Noah Harari
historian, lecturer and author

“If defense budgets around the world would be 20% instead of 6%, that would come at the expense of our healthcare, of our welfare, and it would also come at the expense of fighting other dangers like climate change,” he said.
“This would be a terrible catastrophe for the whole of humanity,” he said, adding that a peaceful resolution is not just in the interests of Ukraine and its immediate neighbors, but wider society.
“It’s really about defending the peace and the kind of world we got used to,” he said. “We got so used to it that we take it for granted. But if we are not careful we will slide back into the jungle of war and violence in which countries are forced to spend far more on tanks and missiles and far less on teachers and nurses and welfare systems.”
Harari did, however, see some cause for cautious optimism if Western allies were to succeed in bringing about a peaceful end to the conflict.
“If Putin loses and is seen to lose, that will actually safeguard the previous order. When there is a norm and somebody violates the norm and is punished for that, then this actually strengthens the norm,” he said.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday advised investors to find stocks that can perform well in any market environment.
“This is a hyper-confusing moment, but I want you to search for stocks that can work long-term regardless of whether we’re in the best of times, the worst of times, or both,” the “Mad Money” host said.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday advised investors to find stocks that can perform well in any market environment.
“This is a hyper-confusing moment, but I want you to search for stocks that can work long-term regardless of whether we’re in the best of times, the worst of times, or both,” the “Mad Money” host said.

Cramer named several stocks that investors should consider. Procter & Gamble has a good “longer-term perspective,” while Disney stock could be good for investors bullish on travel, he said.
He added that investors wanting to capitalize on banks that will benefit from the Federal Reserve raising interest rates should look at Bank of America, while those worried that the Russia-Ukraine war will escalate should eye defense contractor Raytheon Technologies.
To exemplify the market’s current “best of times, worst of times” environment, Cramer pointed to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s comments in the company’s first-quarter earnings call. Dimon said he sees “significant geopolitical and economic challenges ahead due to high inflation, supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday that the company had the “highest sales in terms of bookings of any month” in company history in March, Cramer said.
As confusing as the companies’ contrasting messaging might be for investors, Cramer said that the differences in the companies’ performance can be attributed to the type of businesses they run.

“Bastian deals with the consumer. Dimon deals with the consumer, but also the enterprise. Consumers might be willing to spend like mad even in the face of a Fed-mandated slowdown, just because they’re so eager to get out again.” 
Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Disney and Procter & Gamble.

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