What U.S. Companies Really Pay in Taxes — A Study Commissioned by BusinessWeek Shows That Corporate America Pays the IRS Anywhere From Zero to 400% of Income, by Nanette Byrnes:

To get a real-world view of how corporate players fare under the complexities of the tax code, we had data tracker Capital IQ analyze the tax burdens of companies in the S&P 500-stock index. …  Instead of simply adopting the tax rate that companies report on their income statements, Capital IQ looked at the cash taxes disclosed in footnotes and cash flow statements companies file with the SEC, the closest we can get to what they actually paid in taxes. By dividing that figure by a company's pretax income (excluding extraordinary items) and averaging it over four years to minimize anomalies, we calculated what we consider to be the true tax rate.

The result is a list of players whose tax burdens ranged widely, from essentially nothing to almost 400% of pretax income a year. Troubled industries with weakening profits had the highest tax rates: The auto sector averaged 45.5%, banks paid 50.3%, and real estate companies paid 66.1%. The least-taxed industries were semiconductors, at 19.6%, often because of high expenses in the U.S. and high overseas income. Infrastructure investments helped to keep telecoms at a low 22.2%. …

Corporate Taxes: Who Pays the Most (4-Year Average Annual Tax Rate):

1. Verizon:  391.3%
2. Fidelity National Information Services: 254.8%
3. Zions Bancorporation:  226.1%
4. Eastman Kodak:  146.1%
5. Sun Microsystems:  139.5%
6. Citigroup:  106.3%
7. Motorola:  106.0%
8. Goodyear:  84.1%
9. Notheast Utilities:  70.7%
10. Dominion Resources:  69.6%

Corporate Taxes: Who Pays the Least (4-Year Average Annual Tax Rate):

1. Range Resources:  0.4%
2. Allegheny Energy:  1.1%
3. FPL Group:  1.3%
4. Broadcom:  1.7%
5. Nividia:  2.2%
6. Xcel Energy:  2.5%
7. Akamai Technologies:  2.9%
8. Teco Energy:  3.0%
9. Boeing: 3.2%
10. CMS Energy: 3.5%

Methodology: We looked at the companies in the S&P 500 index, excluding those with two or more recent years of losses, and instead of the "effective tax rate" companies calculate and apply to their income statement, pulled out the figure companies disclose as cash taxes paid. That's the closest number available in public filings to the check they wrote to the IRS and other tax collectors around the world. Dividing that by pretax income excluding extraordinary items, we came up with a tax rate closer to reality. Real estate investment trusts, and companies based outside the U.S were dropped from the list. To minimize the impact of one-time anomalies, we then averaged the last four years' numbers.