California's Apple and Chevron lead the way
No company should be able to game the tax system to
avoid paying what it legitimately owes. And, yet, with at least 83 of the
nation's top 100 publicly traded companies establishing shell companies in
offshore havens to avoid taxes, this is becoming more the rule than the
exception. GE, Google, Goldman Sachs and dozens of others have
created hundreds of phantom entities with nothing more than a clever tax
attorney and P.O. box.
A
dozen of California's largest corporations are holding nearly $262 billion in
foreign earnings in offshore subsidiaries to avoid U.S. and California
taxation, according to a new study by a the Public Interest Research Group. California's Apple, was
listed as having has the most offshore holdings of any U.S. corporation,
$82.66 billion. Chevron was
another major tax avoider. Tax
havens shield companies from federal, state and local taxes.
Recent academic studies in the report estimate that about $150 billion in tax revenue is lost every
year to offshore tax havens. The result? Cuts to public services,
additional taxes today or additional debt to be passed on to the next
generation.
It’s not
illegal, but it’s not right.
Meanwhile . . . the average taxpayer paid $1,026
more to cover the billions that GE and others skipped out on last year,
companies that don’t use these schemes keep struggling to compete with those
that do, and state legislatures and Congress are considering deep cuts for
essential public programs — from education, to health care, to clean air and
drinking water.
Read the report: http://uspirg.org/issues/usp/close-corporate-tax-loopholes
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