Tax breaks and subsidies for private corporations can be controversial, but they're also common practice around the world: Helping firms to grow, boosting a country's technological base through research and development and building conditions to create more and better jobs.

The use of state assistance has often drawn the ire of competitors and led to disputes between countries or blocs at the World Trade Organization (WTO) – the picture is rarely simple, particularly in an age when major companies have operations based across the globe.

Here's a quick overview of government support and controversies in different countries.

Amazon and the multinationals

Huge companies like Amazon and Apple have benefited from state aid not just in the U.S., but around the world, as countries look to benefit from investment from multinationals by offering tax breaks and other incentives.

Amazon, one of the world's biggest companies, paid no federal taxes in the U.S. in 2018 on profits of 11 billion U.S. dollars. It also received a 129-million-U.S.-dollar tax rebate.

How? The company profited from Republican tax cuts of 2017, carried forward losses from past years and received tax credits for investments in research and development, according to CNBC.

Big American companies have also been helped by state aid overseas. The European Commission found in 2018 that Luxembourg had granted state aid to Amazon up to 250 million euros, for example, and in 2019 ordered Apple to pay 13 billion euros in back taxes to Ireland – both deny wrongdoing.

American auto industry

The auto industry in the United States has had a significant helping hand from federal and state governments.

General Motors, the company bailed out with 49.5 billion U.S. dollars in taxpayer money after its 2009 bankruptcy, has barely paid any federal taxes in recent years despite being profitable since 2010. Like Amazon, it has taken advantage of a tax break allowing it to use past losses to protect it from tax on future profits. 

It has also been helped by federal policies such as a 7,500-U.S.-dollar tax credit for electric cars, which allows the company to sell the vehicles at a higher price, according to CNN, and tens of millions of dollars in research grants.

The automotive industry in the U.S. has also received major support from individual states: Around 17 billion U.S. dollars in support from individual 17 states was shelled out in the 40 years to 2017, according to the Good Jobs First research group.

Boeing, Airbus

State support can be particularly controversial in strategic industries. The United States and the European Union have been trading claims and legal action over aid to rival airline firms Boeing and Airbus since 2004. 

The U.S. filed a case with the WTO in 2006 claiming Airbus, owned by Germany, France, Spain and Britain's BAE Systems, had received 22 billion U.S. dollars in illegal subsidies. The EU countered that Boeing had received 23 billion U.S. dollars in "trade-distorting" subsidies.

The dispute has rumbled on ever since, and the WTO has ruled that both sides unfairly subsidized their aircraft makers.

The WTO said in March the U.S. had ignored its request to halt a subsidized tax break for Boeing. The U.S. said only a Washington state tax break worth around 100 million U.S. dollars annually had been found still to violate the rules – an indication of the level of support big companies receive from favorable tax policies.

EU and UK

The EU has sought to crackdown on "sweetheart deals" granted to multinationals, but did relax state aid rules in the wake of the global financial crisis, making it easier for governments to help companies in a bid to improve research and innovation. EU state aid rules remain tight, only allowing assistance with approval from the European Commission, with some exceptions.

The bloc announced a new fund to invest in tech companies worth 5.2 billion U.S. dollars this year. The fund, expected to formally launch in 2021, will target early stage firms in deep tech, such as manufacturing, biotechnology, health-tech, and artificial intelligence.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also suggested he may relax state aid rules post-Brexit, telling voters during the recent election campaign EU rules had made it difficult for Britain to protect its steel industry.

South Korea

State support for major companies is common practice in South Korea too: the Seoul government gave Samsung 155 million U.S. dollars in subsidies – not including tax breaks – in 2012 alone, according to analysis of official figures by Hankyoreh.

Big South Korean companies, also including Hyundai and LG, received a combined 673.9 million U.S. dollars in subsidies that year, principally for research and development.

Seoul also has 10-billion-U.S.-dollar plan in place to support its commercial shipbuilding industry, a policy which has drawn the ire of Japan and the EU. Tokyo launched a complaint to the WTO in 2018.