One of the basic functions of a State is to impose taxation on individuals and companies. In this way the state achieves the redistribution of income and funds its functions. With the money that a state gathers it may finance public education and healthcare system, public infrastructure projects and a welfare system, where the poor people are being protected in order to live a dissent life. But paying taxes is just not for the multinationals!
While the strongest states are waging wars across the length and breadth of the planet we live in, destroying peoples, our governments try to persuade us that they cannot control tax avoidance. They try to persuade us that they cannot control Bermuda and Cayman Islands and other tax heavens!
By not paying taxes the multinationals have replaced our elected governments, which are totally manipulated by them. The citizens of the western states are becoming slaves of the international mafia of golden boys, a procedure that has been already done in the “developed world”.
Tax avoidance is not a simple economic malfunction of capitalism, but a tool to enslave people and countries, just like public debt. Tax avoidance is an issue of Justice and Democracy!
If our governments cannot protect their people why should we be conformable to them?
Moreover if our governments deliberate preserve multinationals’ tax avoidance and condemn people in poverty living miserable lives, why should we allow them to do so?
In the following article you can find a report written by Oxfam about the growth of tax avoidance of the biggest US multinational companies.
Stathis Habibis
Fifty biggest global US companies stash $1.3 trillion offshore
The 50 biggest US companies have more than a trillion dollars hidden offshore according to a new report published by Oxfam today. This is more than the entire GDP of countries such as Spain, Mexico or Australia.
The companies, which include global brands such as Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical, Chevron, Walmart, IBM, and Procter and Gamble, have more than 1,600 subsidiaries in tax havens. It’s estimated that tax dodging by multinational companies costs countries around the world up to $240 billion annually.
The report, ‘Broken at the Top’, found the companies, which together made nearly $4 trillion in profits globally between 2008 and 2014, received a staggering $11 trillion in US government support over the same period. Oxfam calculates that during this period, these companies collectively received approximately $27 in government support for every $1 they paid in federal taxes.
The revelations come in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal that, once again, revealed how powerful individuals and companies are using tax havens to hide their wealth and dodge taxes.
Robbie Silverman, Senior Tax Advisor at Oxfam said: “Yet again we have evidence of a massive systematic abuse of the global tax system. We can’t go on with a situation where the rich and powerful are not paying their fair share of tax, leaving the rest of us to foot the bill. Governments across the globe must come together now to end the era of tax havens.”
Tax avoidance has become standard business practice across the globe. Oxfam estimates that 90 percent of the top 200 global companies use tax havens.
“The same tricks and tools used by multinational companies to dodge tax in the US are being used to cheat countries across the world out of their fair share of tax revenues, with devastating consequences. Poor countries are particularly hard hit, losing an estimated $100 billion a year to corporate tax dodgers. This is enough to provide safe water and sanitation to more than 2.2 billion people,” said Silverman.
The 50 companies spent approximately $2.6 billion lobbying the US government to maintain favorable tax rules and other beneficial policies between 2008 and 2014. Companies also spend large amounts lobbying elsewhere – a conservative estimate of the amount spent on EU lobbying each year is $1.7 billion. This lobbying generates an incredible rate of return. Oxfam estimates that for every $1 spent on lobbying, the 50 big US companies collectively received $130 in tax breaks and more than $4000 in subsidies from the US government.
Silverman said, “When corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes governments are forced to cut back on essential services or levy higher taxes on the rest of us. It’s time governments stopped pandering to big business and started working for the good of their citizens.”
‘Broken at the Top’ outlines a range of tricks, tools, and loopholes companies use to avoid paying tax. One of the most common is profit shifting, where a company declares its profits in a low or zero tax jurisdictions instead of where they actually do business. In 2012 for example US companies reported $80 billion of profits in the tiny island of Bermuda – more than their reported profits in Japan, China, Germany and France combined.
Oxfam is calling for governments to work together to ensure multinational companies and wealthy individuals pay their fair share of tax. This must include measures to ensure companies pay taxes where they do business and to stop the secrecy that enables companies and individuals to hide their money from tax authorities.
Here you can find the full report ‘Broken at the top’:
Oxfam analysed the tax affairs of the 50 largest public companies in the US including: Alphabet (Google), American Express, American International Group (AIG), Amgen, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Boeing, Capital One Financial, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Comcast, ConocoPhillips, CVS Health, Dow Chemical, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor, General Electric, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Honeywell International, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, Merck, MetLife, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Oracle, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Phillips 66, Procter & Gamble, Prudential Financial, Qualcomm, Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., United Technologies, UnitedHealth Group, US Bancorp, Verizon Communications, Wal-Mart Stores, Walt Disney, and Wells Fargo.
