Democratic lawmakers are pushing a proposal that would seek to collect more taxes from dozens of large companies such as Amazon.com Inc. that record sizable profits but report little or no tax expense.

The push for a new corporate minimum tax comes as Democrats abandon plans to raise the 21% federal corporate rate to help fund spending on social programs and climate-change initiatives. Instead, they hope to raise hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years by setting a minimum 15% federal tax rate on large companies, based...

Democratic lawmakers are pushing a proposal that would seek to collect more taxes from dozens of large companies such as Amazon. com Inc. that record sizable profits but report little or no tax expense.

The push for a new corporate minimum tax comes as Democrats abandon plans to raise the 21% federal corporate rate to help fund spending on social programs and climate-change initiatives. Instead, they hope to raise hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years by setting a minimum 15% federal tax rate on large companies, based on the profits companies report to investors.

President Biden released a framework on the spending package on Thursday. The contents of any tax bill put forward by congressional Democrats remain fluid, and some proposals have encountered resistance among House Democrats. No Republicans are expected to support the package, meaning Democrats can’t lose a single vote in the 50-50 Senate, and can afford just three defections in the House.

Beijing and Washington have been at loggerheads on issues from tech to human rights and territorial claims, but a recent global tax deal shows how the rivals can also cooperate. WSJ looks at what’s next for U.S.-China relations as the G-20 meets in Rome. Photo Composite: Sharon Shi The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

The corporate minimum tax plan revealed this week targets companies that report $1 billion or more in profits under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. Backers say the minimum tax would apply to about 200 companies, which they didn’t identify.

Last year, 236 companies in the S&P 500 index reported more than $1 billion in GAAP pretax income, and more than 60 of them reported effective tax rates, or tax expense as a share of pretax income, below 15% in 2019 or 2020, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

Among them: Amazon, Pfizer Inc., Stanley Black & Decker Inc., Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and Xcel Energy Inc. Not all of these companies would ultimately be subject to the minimum tax, even if it passes as drafted, thanks in part to the effects of other tax provisions and differences between tax and GAAP accounting.

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Angus King discussed a corporate minimum tax plan at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.

Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The proposal would preserve business credits for spending on research, clean energy and foreign taxes, and allow companies to carry forward at least some losses. Those exceptions mean that some companies would still be able to report tax rates below 15% or even zero.

Amazon—the only company singled out by name when the proposal’s sponsors announced the measure—reported pretax income of $24 billion in 2020 and an effective tax rate of 11.8%, according to the Journal’s analysis, which used data from Calcbench, a financial data firm.

Among the factors reducing Amazon’s reported tax rate, according to its latest annual report: significant foreign income taxed at rates different than the U.S. rate; stock-based compensation; unspecified tax credits; and a deduction for foreign-derived intangible income, or FDII, established in the 2017 tax overhaul.

Amazon’s tax rate is primarily driven by immediate deductions for business investment, research tax credits and stock-based compensation effects, the company said.

Immediate expensing—a feature of the 2017 tax overhaul—lets companies deduct the full cost of some capital spending immediately, instead of spreading it out over several years, as financial accounting requires. Over time the two approaches even out. But a company’s taxes in a given year could be pushed below the minimum-tax threshold, tax experts say, especially at companies investing heavily in expansion.

Stock compensation could push some companies into the minimum tax because companies generally record the accounting expense first and tax deductions years later, and they can be different amounts, said Robin Schachter, an executive-compensation attorney in Beverly Hills, Calif. The mismatch means there are years when a company will have lower income for tax purposes, making it more likely to trigger the minimum.

Mr. Schachter said the net result of the stock compensation treatment would probably succeed in raising tax revenue for the government while raising tax costs for companies. “I don’t think it’s going to be a behavioral modifier,” he said.

Many high-profile companies below the 15% threshold may not get hit with the corporate minimum tax because they would first get hit with a different minimum tax on foreign income that Democrats are considering. That tax would require them to pay 15% in each country in which they operate, and then only after that would the broader corporate minimum tax apply.

Pfizer recorded an effective tax rate of 6.4% in 2020 on pretax income of $7.5 billion, one of several large pharmaceutical companies with rates well below 15% in recent years, the Journal analysis found. The company said foreign tax rates cut 9.6 percentage points from the figure, while research tax credits reduced it by 1.3 points.

A Black & Decker facility in South Carolina.

Photo: Clark Hodgin for The Wall Street Journal

Stanley Black & Decker reported an effective tax rate of 3.3% for 2020, on $1.27 billion in pretax income, and 14.2% the year before, according to the Journal analysis. In its securities filings, the toolmaker has cited foreign taxes, stock-based compensation and capital losses as reducing its tax rate.

Stanley’s average world-wide tax rate over three years was 19.4% and its estimated U.S. tax rate was about 25.6%, a spokeswoman said.

Archer-Daniels-Midland, a food and feed company based in Chicago, reported a 5.4% tax rate on $1.9 billion in pretax income in 2020, after reporting a 13.2% rate in 2019, according to its securities filings. ADM declined to comment.

Several utility companies reported low rates as well. Xcel Energy reported an effective tax rate of -0.4% on $1.5 billion in pretax income last year, compared with an 8.5% rate the year before. Tax credits for wind power production were largely behind the lower rate, its securities filings show. Xcel had no immediate comment.

—Richard Rubin contributed to this article.

Write to Theo Francis at theo.francis@wsj.com and Kristin Broughton at Kristin.Broughton@wsj.com