By shifting profits offshore, Pfizer carried out what lawmakers say may be the ‘largest tax-dodging scheme in the history of big pharma,” according to Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
In 2019, Pfizer sold $20 billion worth of drugs to American consumers but reported zero dollars in taxable income to the U.S. government — the drugmaker claimed that all of its profits were earned offshore, according to a new investigation into the company published by the committee last week.
The scheme allowed Pfizer to avoid billions of dollars in taxes in a single year, Wyden said.
The company also signed nondisclosure agreements with the governments of Singapore and Puerto Rico about special tax deals in a move to conceal from Congress the details of its tax-avoidance plan.
Since 2021, Wyden has been spearheading investigations into large drugmakers’ tax strategies. He said Pfizer’s scheme was even larger than those of other Pharma giants, including AbbVie, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Amgen. The committee’s investigation of the other drug companies uncovered similar large schemes to avoid paying corporate income tax rate on profits from drug sales to U.S. patients.
“Pfizer joins a growing list of massively-profitable pharmaceutical corporations that show little-to-zero U.S. profits on tax returns, even though the U.S. is big pharma’s largest customer market,” the report said.
Hellbound and Down 