NEW REPORT: U.S. corporations shifted more than $600 BILLION to 10 tax havens in a *single year*

[Triana]

With the recent release of millions of secret documents from a Panama law firm that helps corporations and wealthy individuals reduce their tax liability, the spotlight is trained anew on tax avoidance. Companies with offshore outposts typically argue that those subsidiaries serve a legitimate business purpose. But now, on the heels of the global Panama Papers scandal, a new report suggests that in many cases the primary goal must be tax avoidance.

According to a review of the most recent IRS data by the watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice, American corporations in 2012 housed more than a half-trillion dollars' worth of profits in just 10 small nations. The group said the smoking-gun proof that the schemes are about tax avoidance comes from Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and Luxembourg, where the profits reported by U.S. corporations were larger than the entire reported gross domestic product of those countries.

"It is obviously impossible for American corporations to earn profits in a given country that exceed that country’s total output of goods and services," the report concluded. "Clearly, American corporations are using various tax gimmicks to shift profits earned in the U.S. and other countries where they do the bulk of their business into their subsidiaries in these tiny countries that impose little or no tax on corporate profits."

. . .

American companies' shift of their profits to their offshore subsidiaries has occurred even though the United States' effective corporate tax rate is among the lowest in the industrialized world. A related report issued last week by CTJ found that the United States is the fourth-least taxed nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, at 25.7 percent of its annual GDP.

While on paper, the U.S. statutory tax rate is among the highest in the developed nations — topped out at a combined state and federal rate of 39.1 percent in 2014 — tax credits, exemptions and other tax avoidance techniques can bring that rate much lower, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis released in 2014. For instance, pharmaceutical company Pfizer managed to pay just 7.5 percent in taxes in 2014.

THE REST:

http://www.ibtimes.com/panama-papers-corporations-shifted-half-trillion-dollars-offshore-tax-havens-2012-2351814

[Rex]

1. *CRICKETS*

My my my...you think this will be all over the M$M as a major story to be covered non-stop for weeks on end?

[malaise]

2. They won't even discuss the dangerous weather in the South

*crickets* on steroids!

[Rex]

3. Wouldn't it be a real treat if the GOP and the M$M imploded in 2016?

Not only millions of people piling into the D.C. capital to protest, millions around the country showing up at news stations to protest THEM.

[malaise]

4. Think about it this way

GEM$NBComcast has given Brian Williams more airtime than ever - that pathological LIAR - fewer people watch them by the day.

Protests would be great - they have earned implosion

[Sunlei]

5. Fabulous 1000%+ medicine profits. "pharmaceutical company Pfizer managed to pay just 7.5 percent in

pharmaceutical company Pfizer managed to pay just 7.5 percent in taxes in 2014

[silvershadow]

6. Insanity. nt

[LiberalArkie]

7. What I have found strange is that we know how banks work. You deposit money, the bank then

loans that money out with interest or the bank invests that money hoping for profit that way. Now with 600 billion being invested or loaned who is keeping the profit? The banks are not holding on to that money out of the goodness of their hearts.

[GummyBearz]

8. Dumbass amateurs

The double Irish arrangement with a Dutch sandwich is legal and can reduce a tax margin to around 2-3%, like google paid a few years back.


Google 2.4% Rate Shows How $60 Billion Is Lost to Tax Loopholes

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60-billion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes

[Octafish]

9. ''It is obviously impossible for American corporations to earn profits in a given country...

...that exceed that country’s total output of goods and services."

And that was the first clue.

[Akamai]

10. The average corporate tax rate in the US is 12.1 percent. Read the following from Wikipedia

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States

"The United States has the third highest general top marginal corporate income tax rate in the world at 39.1 percent (consisting of the 35% federal rate and a combined state rate), exceeded only by Chad and the United Arab Emirates .[1] However, the average corporate tax rate in 2011 dipped to 12.1%, its lowest level since before World War I, largely due to the great recession and a bonus depreciation tax break.[2]"

When the Republicans are saying that US companies are paying the highest taxes anywhere, how do you know they are lying? because their lips are moving.

Go Bernie!!!

[Igel]

13. Read what you wrote.

Lowest since 1918 or so, because (1) recession (which has the effect of reducing income more than expenses) and (b) a "bonus depreciation tax break."

In other words, a perfect storm for revenue combined with a perfect storm for protecting revenue being cited as "the ways things usually are." Thing is, it's not 2011. Not for most of us.

By that kind of reasoning Texas weather is a combination of blistering heat, grapefruit-sized hailstones, during a long-term drought and freezing weather. We get all of those, just not so often. The point is you can't reasonably generalize extremes, especially extreme reports during extreme times. (The 12.1% number is cited, but isn't the most common effective tax rate cited for the US for 2011. All such numbers are some sort of weighted average based on some estimates.)

Other estimates of effective tax rate--which isn't just federal, but also state--for 2011 at a bit higher. But for years after 2011, the estimates tend to be around 27%, give or take a small amount. Most of the time, for most scenarios, the rate is much higher than 12.1% and higher in the US than in some other countries.

[Akamai]

14. Take a look at this article on Huffington Post -- taxes are low on

companies.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gao-study-profitable-corporations-no-federal-taxes_us_570e6c62e4b0ffa5937dbadb

The average effective tax rate was about 14% in recent years, the article said. Bruce Bartlett has repeatedly said that the failure of corporations and wealthy individuals to pay their fair share of taxes is the major reason for our economic difficulties.

I sure agree with him.

Go Bernie!!!

[Praek3]

11. Help Wanted: Police Investigators and Prosecutors With Balls

Stealing from us all! This is nothing short of theft. These corporation have broken all civil decencies for PROFITS. Screw them to hell.

Instead of arresting protesters exercising their FIRST AMENDMENT right to free speech, how about arresting and prosecuting these corporate cockroaches?

[raindaddy]

12. The American people need to start charging a usage tax for using THEIR airwaves,.....

roads and bridges, sun, water etc....if you don't want to pay sell your shit somewhere else...

[ronnie624]

15. Capitalism is an unsustainable fraud.

The system cannot survive without chicanery, tax evasion and regular infusions of public resources.