This comes from a web site called Think Progress:
Even as American corporations are raking in record profits, the largest among them are shifting larger amounts of money away from the United States and into offshore tax havens that allow them to pad their bottom lines even more, according to multiple analyses of legal filings made since the beginning of 2013.
The Wall Street Journal found that the 60 largest companies moved $166 billion offshore in 2012, shielding 40 percent of their earnings from American taxes and costing the U.S. billions in lost revenue:
The amount of money at stake is significant, particularly when the U.S. budget deficit is high on the political agenda. Just 19 of the 60 companies in the Journal's survey disclose the tax hit they could face if they brought the money back to their U.S. parent. Those companies say they might have to pay $98 billion in additional tax–more than the $85 billion in automatic-spending cuts triggered this month after the White House and Congress couldn't agree on an alternative.
Three points jump out.
One is the staggering cost to the US of this abuse - a cost that impacts real lives. Corporate tax haven abuse is not a victimless crime. Real people will suffer in the US for this abuse.
The second is the opacity that is allowed to leave this crime unnoticed in far too many cases.
And third, this is a crime that could be tackled and politicians are choosing not to do so and impose cuts instead.
All are a warning to the UK: this happens here too. That's why I and others campaign on this issue.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
As it happens I was just reading Corporate Watch’s report on the privatised water companies in England and Wales. To me that is even more of a scandal than other industries doing the same thing, because water is the second most basic commodity we have and people are finding it increasingly difficult to pay their water bills.
Corporate watch estimates savings of 2 billion a year if the loans were raised by a public utility rather than privately: and it shows that most of those companies do not pay tax on their profit in this country because the borrowings are from related parties in tax havens.
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=4685
Summary in the link
It is the same old story: the money goes to multinationals and to banks. The report of the parliamentary commission on reform of the banks is also essential reading: it is a damning report and it demonstrates the government have no intention of implementing effective reform: not even the rather weak plan proposed by the commission. If you have any doubt about the government’s agenda read the link attached to this post
http://thosebigwords.forumcommunity.net/?t=51300641&p=376503191
I like how “more of the money is STAYING offshore” has become “MOVED $166 billion offshore”
So were the profts made elsewhere and not moved to the States, where they could be taxed by Uncle Sam?
Or were they made in the States and moved offshore to avoid said taxes?
Both