A small crowd gathered outside Bank of America headquarters Monday in Charlotte as the lunch hour began, chanting "Make them pay!"
The tax-day rally was part of a national campaign by liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org to combat what it calls unfair tax policies. The group says Bank of America and other major companies, including Wells Fargo and Google, are using loopholes in the tax code to avoid paying their fair share.
Charlotte-based Bank of America was a popular target Monday, with many of the rallies in the Carolinas and beyond staged at its corporate offices and branches.
The bank had no federal income tax expenses for a second straight year in 2010, reporting a tax "benefit" of nearly $1 billion in its annual report. But that's because corporations pay taxes on their profits, and Bank of America posted a pre-tax loss of $5.4 billion in the U.S. in 2010.
The bank paid state, local and foreign income taxes last year, for an overall tax expense of $915 million.
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