5 Giant Un-American Corporations Trying to Bolt U.S. to Avoid Taxes

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http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/5-giant-un-american-corporations-trying-bolt-us-avoid-taxes


BOSTON - JUNE 9: Shopper enters Walgreens store on June 9, 2013 in Boston. Walgreens is the largest drug retail chain in the United States with 8,300 stores in 50 states.
Photo Credit: Tupungato / Shutterstock.com

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1. Walgreens

Walgreens is the US’ largest pharmacy retailer with 8,200 stores and locations in all 50 states, and the company is currently deciding whether to renounce its U.S. corporate status and instead claim on paper to be a Swiss company. According to Americans for Tax Fairness, this move would mean Walgreens avoids paying $4 billion in US taxes in the next five years.

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2. Medtronic

Medtronic Inc., a medical device maker with $17 billion in annual sales, is in the middle of purchasing Ireland’s Covidien for $42.9 billion as a tax-avoidance scheme.

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3. Perrigo

Perrigo is, according to Fortune Magazine’s report, Top American corporate tax avoiders, “the world’s largest seller of over-the-counter store-brand drugs.” It is “headquartered in Michigan but incorporated in low-tax Ireland.” Perrigo is suing the Food and Drug Administration &quot for which the company doesn’t pay its fair share) for allegedly not moving quickly enough to allow its testosterone gel to be sold without a prescription.”

4. Ingersoll-Rand

Ingersoll-Rand renounced its citizenship just one month after 9/11, claiming it really was headquartered in Bermuda. Later it moved to Ireland. Even though it is not an American company anymore, Fortune Magazine’s report points out that doesn’t mean it doesn't receive the benefits of being American. “CEO Michael Lamach says one place Ingersoll Rand gets its engineering and technical talent is “our U.S. military veteran recruiting program.”

[hobbit709]

1. If they don't want to pay taxes here, then they don't need to do business here.

[Enthusiast]

2. Action should be taken against these companies.

[lovemydog]

4. Big-time

We must close these loopholes that even allow it.

[drynberg]

5. This ain't right...I agree, we need action from the gov't to stop this cheating.

Corporations are only in it to pad the bottom line. All else is window dressing/spin. These greed heads just see us as ATMs and they worship the profits. First, we gotta get $$$$ outta politics, no?

[Dustlawyer]

8. Absofreakinlutely! Sept., 13th - Nov., 4th and beyond Protest!!!! Spread the word and organize

your town!!!!

[smiley]

3. I would think the logical solution to this is...

start taxing the hell out of corporations that claim citizenship outside of the U.S.

Of course this will never happen.

[spartan61]

6. I was just discharged from the

hospital a few days ago with a fistful of Rx to be filled. Because I had read about Walgreen's plan to become a Swiss company, I chose to drive pass the Walgreen's near my house and went instead to another pharmacy farther away. It's only a small way to protest, but if all of us take this kind of action, maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference. Enough is enough. You don't want to pay taxes in the US?? Then take your 8200 stores and get the hell out of here!

[DeSwiss]

7. K&R

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[azurnoir]

9. K&R n/t

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10. Merger Rush for Offshore Tax Break Bets on U.S. Stalemate

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-21/merger-rush-for-offshore-tax-break-bets-on-u-s-stalemate.html

U.S. companies are racing to complete tax-reducing offshore mergers before a credible threat to stop them emerges from Congress.

AbbVie Inc. (ABBV), maker of the arthritis medicine Humira, announced the largest such inversion deal July 18 with a plan to move its tax home to the U.K. in a $55 billion purchase of Shire Plc. (SHP) It joins seven other companies, including Medtronic Inc. (MDT), with pending deals that would be unwound, renegotiated or penalized under plans from the Obama administration and Congress to make tax changes retroactive to May.

Each deal puts additional pressure on lawmakers to act while making it more disruptive if they change the rules retroactively. Democrats want to stop U.S. companies from moving their addresses abroad through purchases of smaller businesses overseas. Republicans have resisted, labeling such proposals punitive and porous.

“As more deals get announced and expectations are created and expenses are incurred to move these deals along, it becomes harder and harder to hold to that May effective date,” said Robert Willens, a corporate tax consultant in New York. “The bankers and the lawyers are telling them that, ‘Hey, the sooner you announce this thing, the greater the chances are that the deal will go through as you intend.’”

[ancianita]

11. Revoke their charters and wish them luck finding new home countries. Let them negotiate trade

deals like any other foreign company.

[RiverLover]

12. They're all rotten to the core, but to me, #5 was the WORST. Wow, gall is right....

5. Eaton Corp

Here is one with a lot of gall. Eaton took $90 million in taxpayer-financed subsidies to build a headquarters in Cleveland, then moved itself to Ireland to avoid paying U.S. taxes. But Eaton and its CEO are part of the notorious Fix the Debt campaign, a campaign to persuade Congress to cut Social Security and impose austerity on 99% of us — because the U.S. doesn’t collect enough in taxes!

That’s right, a company that claims to be Irish to avoid paying U.S. taxes is lecturing Americans on how we need to cut back on the things government does for us. Fix the Debt says we have to do this because of a shortfall in tax collections… from companies like Eaton!

Why aren't our candidates talking about this???

Are they, & I've just missed it?