U.S. corporations now have over $2 trillion hidden in offshore bank accounts, or tax havens, as of this week, reported NBC News.
This is the most amount of money that companies have kept offshore ever, and the $2.1 trillion amount is six times more than what it was 12 years ago. By April of 2013, the total was $1.5 trillion, meaning that amount increased $500 billion in just 18 months. According to the report, the analysis illustrating the hidden money “paints a bleak picture of whether that money will make its way home and the limited economic impact it would have even if it does.”
“The latest signs suggest that, as business confidence improves in light of the continued economic recovery, U.S. firms are starting to hold less cash domestically,” said economists Paul Dales and Andrew Hunter. “However, the foreign cash piles of the largest firms have almost certainly continued to grow.”
Not only is $2 trillion the most amount of money ever kept offshore, it’s more money than is kept domestically, which is $1.9 trillion. The rate at which corporations cheat the system by dodging American corporate taxes is tremendous and sickening.
Republicans are quick to note the fact that America’s corporate tax rate is the highest of the 33 countries in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). However, because American corporations use offshore accounts and other tax loopholes, the average is actually less than 20 percent.
In fact, 26 of America’s top 288 corporations didn’t even pay their income taxes from 2008 to 2012, reported RT.
“Tax subsidies for the 288 companies over the five years totaled a staggering $364 billion, including $56 billion in 2008, $70 billion in 2009, $80 billion in 2010, $87 billion in 2011, and $70 billion in 2012,” said Citizens for Tax Justice. “These amounts are the difference between what the companies would have paid if their tax bills equaled 35 percent of their profits and what they actually paid.”
As has been noted before, American corporations engage in legal theft. Greedy corporations use tax havens and loopholes to increase their profit margin. They need to pay what they owe.
