Bernie Sanders Blasts United, Southwest And American For Not Paying Federal Taxes — He’s Actually Wrong

Bernie Sanders says that if you paid even $1 in federal income taxes last year, you paid more than American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Except United’s annual report shows they paid $33 million in federal income taxes in 2025. That’s only the start of what he gets wrong. There’s a decent argument to have about how the government taxes airlines – from a 7.5% excise tax and segment tax on domestic tickets on the one hand ($15.915 billion last year) to generous deductions they get for buying planes on the other. But the senator’s list gets basic facts wrong, and leaves out how taxes actually work. Sen. Bernie Sanders, October 24, 2026 $33 million isn’t the federal tax on United’s 2025 profits. They reported $4 million as federal income taxes on their 2025 financial statements, while reporting $33 million in federal tax payments, since the former is accural and the latter is cash. (Payments and refunds can happen in one tax year but relate to another, and estimates get revised.) Ironically, calling out United, not only is Sanders wrong but its CEO Scott Kirby is an ally promoting a federal wealth tax and near-100% inheritance tax. American Barely Made Money, While Airlines Still Have Billions In Tax Losses My first thought was American Airlines. They earned just $111 million on $54.6 billion in revenue last year. They represent a company you think of as ‘huge’ but whose tax bill isn’t going to match. Their net margin was about two-tenths of a percent. American has plenty of problems, but making too much untaxed money isn’t one of them. Airlines are a terrible business. Warren Buffett famously quoted Richard Branson in his 1996 investor letter that the easiest way to become a millionaire quickly is to “Start as a billionaire and then buy an airline.” Over time airline profits have merely offset their massive losses. He once wrote that a “farsighted capitalist” should have done humanity a favor by shooting Orville Wright down at Kitty Hawk. Those accumulate losses don’t just disappear once airlines start making money. American: $11.9 billion in federal net operating loss carryforwards. United: $10.6 billion in federal loss carryforwards. Southwest: a $504 million deferred tax asset for federal loss carryforwards. That’s the tax value, equivalent to about $2.4 billion of losses at the 21% federal corporate rate. A business that loses $10 billion and then earns $1 billion is still $9 billion behind. Allowing losses to offset later income recognizes that businesses operate across years, rather than starting over every January 1. Tax losses can also come from deductions that run ahead of expenses in the financial statements. And post-2017 loss carryforwards generally can offset only 80% of taxable income, with different rules for older losses. American recorded $79 million of income tax expense for 2025, all deferred. United recorded $953 million mostly deferred. Southwest recorded $122 million deferred. Airlines Deduct A Financed Plane Ahead Of The Expenses Aircraft purchases are a major part of what drives down airline tax expense. They spread the cost of a plane over the years of expected use but for tax purposes they recognize expenses faster. The 2025 tax law restored permanent 100% bonus depreciation for eligible property acquired after January 19, 2025. That means an airline deducts the value of aircraft it purchases that it mostly hasn’t paid for yet. A sale leaseback, though, leaves the lessor owning the aircraft aircraft for tax purposes and claiming depreciation while the airline deducts rent rent expense on the aircraft. (Selling a plane can trigger taxable gain and recapture of depreciation already claimed.) I wrote about going through Southwest’s financials. They note that accelerated depreciation on aircraft purchases brought forward cash tax benefits, and that future aircraft deliveries will continue doing so. Their federal loss tax asset actually grew in 2025 even as they made money. You can argue that taking the deduction years before a plane wears out, and before the purchase is paid for, doesn’t make sense – especially when continued growth buying planes pushes tax payments even further out. But you might also counter that the deduction reduces the cost of investment which encourages additional aircraft purchases, supports jobs at airframe manufacturers and their suppliers, and brings down fares. That benefits tourism, commerce and economic growth. If Sanders has a beef with the tax law here, though, that’s squarely in his domain. He’s a member on the Senate Committee on Finance and its Subcommittee on Taxation. He bears more responsibility than most legislators for the state of U.S. tax law! Airlines Pay Billions In Federal Taxes It’s somewhat deceptive to specify federal income taxes and suggest that airlines don’t pay taxes. U.S. airlines break down a lot of their financials in required reports to the Department of Transportation. Those show $2.45 billion in payroll taxes for the 3 airlines Sanders calls out alone (employer side of FICA alone). And we can estimate airline fuel taxes from reported domestic fuel gallons multiplied by the 4.3-cent commercial aviation fuel excise tax. Airline 2025 employer payroll tax expense Estimated base federal fuel excise tax on domestic flying American $834 million mainline; $1.009 billion including Envoy, PSA and Piedmont $98 million, mainline only United $840 million, mainline airline $87 million, mainline only Southwest $601 million $92 million Many Of The Companies On Sanders’ List Actually Paid Federal Income Taxes Sanders lists 19 companies, but some are subsidiaries of others on the list which I guess makes the list seem longer. (Ticketmaster is part of Live Nation and Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC are part of Yum Brands.) Here’s what I found for each company’s fiscal 2025 reported for income, federal cash tax payments, and employment. Company 2025 net profit Federal income tax Reported employment Disney $12,404m Not separately shown 231,000 American Airlines Group $111m Not separately shown 139,100 active FTEs Citigroup $14,306m $68m net refund 226,000 full-time CVS Health $1,768m $1,583m paid Over 300,000 DoorDash $935m Not separately shown Over 31,400 GoDaddy $875m $1.5m paid 5,845 H&R Block $606m $143.3m 4,300 regular full-time; 70,100 at seasonal peak HP Inc. $2,529m Not separately shown 55,000 Kohl’s $272m $41m paid 84,000 annual average Live Nation / Ticketmaster $496m $0 34,700 including year-end seasonal and part-time staff Palantir $1,625m $0 4,429 full-time PayPal $5,233m $535m paid 23,800 Roku $88m $1.831m paid 3,600 full-time Southwest Airlines $441m $2m net refund 72,790 active FTEs Tesla $3,794m $28m paid 134,785 United Airlines Holdings $3,353m $33m paid 113,200 Yum Brands: Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC $1,559m $4m, excluding purchased tax credits** 49,000, excluding franchisees CVS and PayPal alone disclosed more than $2.1 billion in federal cash income taxes. I don’t see how they belong on this list at all. Separately tax law allocates profits of global corporations to various jurisdictions, for instance Disney paid $1.2 billion in income taxes, HP $535 million, Live Nation $313 million, and Palantir $21.7 million. Its exceptionally troublesome I think to suggest that not paying federal income taxes (and the Sanders list itself seems just wrong) means not contributing to society. One simple illustration is that these companies employ about 1.5 million people. And that doesn’t count the franchisees of Yum Brands which emplyee another million people or DoorDash drivers. There’s also a troubling premise here – that entrepreneurs and businesses are doing something wrong when they produce things that are valuable to society and aren’t paying something additional beyond that for the privilege. Bernie’s Own Tax Exemption I’ve written about Sanders flying Delta first class, and flying American first class. I’ve also covered the Delta Boeing 767 he chartered to Rome, complete with flat beds, herb crusted lamb and lobster sliders. I’ve defended the efficiency of holding rallies in smaller cities without direct flights by flying private, and that first class isn’t that luxurious on domestic flights but can give you more room to work. North Korea demonstrates that socialism is perfectly compatible with multiple classes of service. Even Air Koryo sells business class! But do you know who else doesn’t generally pay federal income tax? Bernie Sanders’ campaign and qualifying political committees! Under the rules for tax-exempt political organizations, contributions and other qualifying political receipts are exempt. He’s using the tax law as-written. And he writes the tax laws for corporations. But here he’s just being careless or disingenous calling out many of these companies for not paying tax.