About ______ of foreign-owned companies avoided federal taxes altogether.

A new government study shows that most US corporations paid no federal taxes between 1996 and 2000. The study found that more than 60 percent of US-based companies avoided federal taxes altogether. The percentage of foreign-owned firms that paid zero taxes was about 10 percent higher. A front-page article in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal says the study show that evading taxes, through legal or other means, has become "deeply rooted in US corporation culture."