Posted on 01/16/2009 5:06:56 PM PST by BGHater
A majority of America's largest publicly traded companies and the U.S. government's largest federal contractors -- including some receiving millions in federal bailout money -- use multiple subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to conduct business and avoid paying U.S. taxes, a new report finds.
The new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, released today by Sens. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), lists Citigroup and Morgan Stanley as having set up hundreds of tax haven subsidiaries, along with American International Group and Bank of America. Also in the tax-haven list are well-known companies and such federal contractors as American Express, Pepsi and Caterpillar.
GAO, searching publicly available data filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, determined that 83 of the 100 largest publicly traded corporations and 63 of the 100 largest federal contractors maintain subsidiaries in countries generally considered havens for avoiding taxes. Dorgan and Levin said they requested the updated report from one several years ago because they are focused on combating offshore tax abuses, which they estimated cause $100 billion in lost U.S. tax revenue each year.
GAO auditors did not review the companies' transactions to independently verify that the subsidiaries helped the companies reduce their tax burden. The GAO said only that the companies had subsidiaries located in jurisdictions considered tax havens and that historically the purpose of those subsidiaries is to cut tax costs.
The practice is legal, but Dorgan and Levin are hoping to gain the support of President-elect Barack Obama for legislation that would outlaw it.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
HA...I did exactly the same!
If the corporations didn’t want their illegal offshore money exposed, they shouldn’t have taken taxpayer cash.
Why don’t they look into the Left wing Elitist’s tax havens? The Left does not care about the high taxes because they’ve had their money in tax havens from the beginning.
The Kennedy’s are yet another example of using tax havens but sticking to the working America People.
And soon they will have off shore corporate headquarters as well. Why stay and get roasted by “THE socialist ONE”?
I tend to think taxes, litigation.
Because the Tax Code is doing exactly what it's intended to do. Namely destroy the last vestiges of the free market capitalist system thereby allowing the Federal Government the opening they want to run basically everything.
Those 'tax havens' were an absolute necessessity and have done exactly what they were intended to do.
We are approaching the end game of Alinskys "Long March Through The Institutions". Leftists now have their grubby hands on ALL of the levers of power in the US.
There is now nothing to be done but prepare for and hope to survive through the inevitable collapse of the US economy.
It's coming and it's going to be very, very ugly.
The avalanche has begun. It's far too late for the pebbles to vote.
L
Fine with me...if they don’t want to invest in this country, then they should go...not really stable out there...hope it works out for them. As for lowering taxes...no doubt these greedy bastids would pay less taxes and continue their off shoring. I make a mistake on my taxes, the penalties are more than the tax. These guys get away with murder...if we have real regulation, it will be because of businesses and individuals who flout existing laws...making it tough for the law abiding.
These tax havens are illegal...these guys should go to jail.
Let them move out and then we refuse any products made by them.
No it’s not...because of the loopholes. The taxes are higher on the books, but no one except small business pays such taxes...the brunt of taxes is born by those who make 100,000 to about 350,000.
Can you even read or do you have someone doing it for you who has skipped the really important part of the article?
From the last line of the post:
The practice is legal,
Idiot.
L
What is illegal about taking already taxed dollars out of the hands of the scum bags in government? It is their money. The government has the whole set up wired to tax the same dollar over and over. That should be illegal.
Me too. I’m done with it. The RNC seems to think it knows what it’s doing....like enough to lose the house senate and presidency, but oh no, don’t listen to those right-wingers....we need to be more centrist. No more $ from me ever.
Why would the government believe it can be more efficient at tracing money than actual productive businesses are at moving it around ? It’s not like government workers are the sharpest pencils in the box.
They should have simply dropped all attempts to collect income and payroll taxes from corporations and simply substituted a 7% NRST. It would raise as much or more money and ecourage HQs to be located here rather than offshore. And unlike the 23% FairTax scam, the rate would be low enough to not offer much incentive to cheat.
It's primary purpose is control.
L
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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