Corporate Profits After Tax
Corporate profits after tax (without inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) is the National Income & Product Accounts measure of the total dollar profits earned by US corporations after corporate taxes. It is the bottom-line aggregate that S&P 500 earnings track over time, published quarterly by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Latest reading
As of January 2026, Corporate Profits (Profits YoY %) stands at 18.4% — up from 2.8% the prior reading. The year-over-year growth rate is the cyclical signal: accelerating profit growth supports equity valuations and capex, while year-over-year contractions have accompanied every earnings recession and most bear markets. Because it is the broadest profit measure, it leads and confirms the corporate earnings cycle that drives the stock market. Series history runs from 1948 to present.
Profits YoY %
- After-tax profits
- $3.95T
Next release: Jul 30, 2026
Full history
Year-over-year %
Quarter-over-quarter %
The latest-quarter change — the higher-frequency momentum read that turns before the year-over-year rate at inflection points.
Dollar level
Total US after-tax corporate profits in dollars (seasonally adjusted annual rate). The level trends higher across decades — the year-over-year view above is where the earnings cycle lives.
Methodology & data
Corporate Profits is sourced from BEA via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (BEA via FRED (CP), quarterly, seasonally adjusted annual rate). We pull the complete history, chart it on a quarterly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date, last updated 2026-06-29. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Corporate Profits After Tax?
Corporate profits after tax (without inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) is the National Income & Product Accounts measure of the total dollar profits earned by US corporations after corporate taxes. It is the bottom-line aggregate that S&P 500 earnings track over time, published quarterly by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
How do you read Corporate Profits?
The year-over-year growth rate is the cyclical signal: accelerating profit growth supports equity valuations and capex, while year-over-year contractions have accompanied every earnings recession and most bear markets. Because it is the broadest profit measure, it leads and confirms the corporate earnings cycle that drives the stock market.
Where does the Corporate Profits data come from?
BEA via FRED (CP), quarterly, seasonally adjusted annual rate. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/corporate-profits.csv.
How often is Corporate Profits updated?
Corporate Profits is a quarterly series from BEA, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.