The study also found that America's Fortune 100 companies, some of which were cited for avoiding U.S. taxes, took in nearly $90 billion in government contracts during the same period.
The report, released Thursday and titled “Corporate America Untaxed: Tax Avoidance on the Rise,” found that the most successful companies have added 44 new subsidiaries in countries recognized as tax havens since the Government Accountability Office examined the subject three years ago.
Among the identified tax dodgers are General Electric, Google, Dell and Merck.
“America’s richest corporations avoid $60 billion a year in taxes by hiding $1 trillion in profits overseas while making billions in federal contracts,” said the Greenlining Institute's general counsel, Samuel Kang, who co-authored the report.
“It’s unpatriotic, it’s unfair and we can’t afford it," he said. "It should be illegal, yet Congress is looking to cut the deficit by slashing Medicare, Social Security, food safety, education and health without collecting another dime from these wealthy companies.”
Still, the Fortune 100 American companies that earned the most criticism in the report accounted for $6.7 trillion in global revenue -- though they're benefiting from government contracts and tax breaks, that also adds up to nearly half of U.S. GDP last year.