PFE - 'Seems Low:' Elon Musk Questions Pfizer's $0 Tax Bill But Did Tesla Pony Up To Uncle Sam? | Benzinga
Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to think biopharma giant Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has dodged taxes despite high profits.
What Happened: The issue began on X, the platform Musk owns, where Ashley St. Clair, a contributor to satirical outlet The Babylon Bee, shared a blog post.
She claimed Pfizer paid zero federal income taxes in 2023. The post alleged the company achieved this by offshoring most profits, effectively eliminating its tax burden.
The author further stated Pfizer, which was among a prominent vaccine maker during the COVID-19 pandemic, spent “tens of billions lobbying legislators to manipulate the tax code.”
A May 2023 Senate Finance Committee report echoed these concerns. It criticized pharmaceutical companies for charging exorbitant prescription drug prices while paying minimal taxes.
The report highlighted that a significant share of these sales come from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid, funded by taxpayer dollars.
Despite this, “the pharmaceutical industry pays tax rates that barely exceed single-digits, and the lion’s share of Big Pharma profits show up offshore, yielding massive ...