WASHINGTON (TNS) — More than a dozen Pennsylvania companies — including a handful in the Pittsburgh area — paid less than the 21% federal corporate income tax rate from 2018 to 2022, according to a study released Thursday by a progressive research group.

The list includes such well-known local companies as PNC Financial Services Group and PPG Industries, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, D.C.

The 340-plus U.S. companies studied were profitable in each of those years but paid an average tax rate of 14%, according to the group. It says former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law, which reduced the federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, allowed companies to pay even less.

A few major Pennsylvania-based brands such as the Hershey Co. and Comcast Corp. paid 15% or less over the past several years, while dozens of other U.S. companies such as Netflix, General Motors, Bank of America and AT&T paid less than 5% of their net income in taxes, the institute said.

“For many of the biggest corporations in America, our 21% tax rate is an accounting fiction,” said Matt Gardner, senior fellow with the institute. “Because of an array of special-interest tax breaks, the most profitable corporations in America routinely pay effective tax rates far below the legal rate.”

Some conservative tax policy advocates say businesses are following the laws enacted by Congress and simply using available deductions and credits. They also argue corporate tax breaks enacted under President Joe Biden were targeted to specific investments, thus undercutting other industries.

In Pittsburgh, Downtown-based PNC reported profits of more than $32.4 billion and paid $3.7 billion in taxes over 2018-2022, for an effective tax rate of 11.5%, according to the research group.

Downtown-based coatings producer PPG Industries, which earned about $2 billion over the period, paid $267 million, a rate of 13%, while Ansys, a Canonsburg-based software firm, earned $2.2 billion and paid 12%, the study said.

Howmet Aerospace paid at a rate of 3.4% over the period, while Wabtec, the rail manufacturing firm, paid a rate of -1.2%, in part due to significant tax breaks in 2021, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Both companies are based on the North Shore.

The Pittsburgh-area companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Eighty-seven U.S. companies paid effective tax rates in the single digits or less from 2018 to 2022, while 55 paid less than 5%.

The research group said the companies were able to cut their tax bill by writing off the costs of investments in equipment more quickly than it wears out and loses value (accelerated depreciation), offering stock options typically paid to executives, taking advantage of tax credits including for research and development, or shifting profits to countries with little or no corporate income tax.

Several Pennsylvania-based companies met or exceeded the 21% corporate tax rate threshold during the 2018-2022 period, including Findlay-based retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods, which paid $986 million in taxes on $4.6 billion in profits; King of Prussia-based Universal Health Services, which reported $1.1 billion in taxes on $4.9 billion in net income; and Station Square-based Wesco, which earned $1.6 billion in profits and paid $366 million in taxes, an effective rate of 23%.

The research group said it was too early to tell whether companies with incomes exceeding $1 billion wound up paying more in taxes under legislation signed into law in 2022 under Biden. That law required a 15% minimum tax.

But the group said the combination of the minimum tax and additional Internal Revenue Service funding, along with proposals like a global minimum tax, “could begin to reduce corporate tax avoidance.”

“Americans who heard President Trump and his supporters in Congress tout the 21 percent corporate income tax rate they enacted in 2017 may be alarmed to hear that so many corporations pay much less than that in reality,” federal policy Director Steve Wamhoff said.

The Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based research group whose board members include former House Republicans, said in 2021 that even if a company pays no corporate income taxes because it was able to write off previous losses, “it should be seen as a normal feature of the U.S. tax code, not a cause for concern.”

“The tax code and accounting rules are not the same,” said Garret Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation. “Rather, tax law is designed to raise revenue and encourage or penalize certain activity, while financial accounting is meant to report financial health to shareholders.”

Watson cited the research and development tax credit, which was created decades ago to foster investment, as well as expanded tax credits for renewable energy production and manufacturing.

“Many firms will continue to report lower effective tax rates despite earning profits in the face of a fairly complex addition to the business tax code,” Watson said.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has urged repeal of a provision in the Trump tax law that’s limited the R&D credit since the beginning of 2022. But the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which says 82 companies reported the provision raised their taxes by a combined $34 billion in 2022, argues lawmakers should reconsider their stance.

“Most people would probably reject the idea that Nike should receive a tax break for figuring out how to produce more comfortable shoes, or that Chipotle or Campbell Soup should receive this tax break for researching ways to modify their foods,” the group said in its report. “But these are examples of companies that claimed to be affected by the R&D provision.”