Source:
Huffington PostA Senate report estimated in 2008 that the United States loses up to $100 billion a year in tax revenue to offshore tax havens (PDF). In a report released Wednesday, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group offers a state-by-state breakdown of the cost to taxpayers of tax revenue lost to "shell companies and sham headquarters" in places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
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U.S. PIRG's report, titled "Tax Shell Game," highlights some findings from a January report by the Government Accountability Office that found over 80 percent of the hundred biggest U.S. companies took advantage of tax havens. In 2008 the GAO found that one five-story building in the Cayman Islands, known as the "Ugland House," contained 18,857 registered businesses, very few of which had anything but a P.O. box there.
Bailout beneficiaries Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Bank of America boast over 300 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands.The tax day release of the report coincides with protests at post offices across the country coordinated by the Campaign to Rebuild and Renew America Now, a coalition of groups supporting the president's budget priorities. Obama's budget calls for reigning in offshore tax havens.
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John Krieger says similar efforts by U.S. PIRG last year brought attention to tax evasion by major defense contractors like
Kellogg, Brown & Root, ultimately leading to legislation to make sure contractors pay their share.
Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/offshore-tax-havens-a-sta_n_186640.html
$100 billion.
Every. Year.
Here's my policy: any corporation, or corporate officers, sheltering revenues offshore would be prohibited from bidding for (or being awarded) ANY government contracts. Period.
On edit: State-by-state proration of the annual $100 billion shift of tax burdens to US taxpayers here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/archive/taxes.htmlOh, and BTW:
protests at post offices across the country coordinated by the Campaign to Rebuild and Renew America Now, a coalition of groups supporting the president's budget priorities.
THIS is the tax day protest
I want to join.