US Uncut Minnesota: Why target tax evaders: FACT SHEET

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Why target tax evaders: FACT SHEET

Facts on Corporations Avoiding Taxes
How it’s Done

• U.S. Multinational corporations abuse the U.S. tax code by claiming they make little to no profits in America.

• Loopholes make it possible for Tech companies, Pharmaceutical companies, Defense Contractors, and just about any major corporation who wants to, to use all of the services our tax dollars pay for including infrastructure, research, police, education and defense, while paying nothing to the U.S. society that makes them enormously profitable.

• Congress doesn’t shut the loopholes down or change the tax laws because of the enormous lobby effort by the major corporations keep the lawmakers in the pocket of big business.

Some Egregious Examples:

Pharmaceutical Companies

• Pfizer: In 2009, while the drug company made $50 billion, it claimed that ZERO of that profit was made in the United States. Therefore, Pfizer didn’t have to pay a single dime in taxes to our country. Since nearly all of Pfizers’ marketing, corporate structure and sales are in the United States where consumers are gouged by unregulated drug prices, this is a clear abuse of the tax system.

• Other Pharma companies shifting profits overseas: Forest Labs, Merck, Bristol Meyers-Squibb, Abott Laboratories, Sherline Plough, Johnson & Johnson

Tech Companies

• Google: Google skipped out on U.S. tax to the tune of $60 billion over the last three years by using a complicated scheme that transferred most of its profits to tax havens. This is the exact amount ($60 billion) that congress just passed (February 18, 2011) in budget cuts that will negatively affect millions of Americans including cuts to Planned Parenthood and PBS.

• Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and IMB all transfer profits overseas to avoid paying tax in America. Facebook is now working out a way to do the same.

Defense Contractors:

• General Electric made 10.8 Billion in profits in 2009 from sales to consumers and U.S. government contracts. By shifting ALL of the profits to other countries, they claimed that Zero percent of that profit was made in the United States and paid nothing in tax in America.

• GE is one of America’s largest defense contractors, so therefore, U.S. taxpayer money makes them rich, and they contribute nothing back to U.S. society.

• In an ironic move, with GE paying nothing in taxes to the U.S. and sending thousands of jobs overseas, in January 2011, Obama named GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as an economic advisor to the White House on Jobs and Competitiveness.

• Major defense contractors that take U.S. taxpayer money and avoid paying taxes: From the Government Accountability Office: Oracle (77 subsidaries in tax havens), Boeing (38 subsidiaries in tax havens), Dell, (29 subsidiaries in tax havens) Hewlett Packard (14 subsidiaries in tax havens). (For more see link below)

Banks and Lending Institutions:

• Bank of America: By transferring profits out of the country, Bank of America has shown negative income tax rates since 2008, meaning they do not pay any taxes at all. Not only haven’t they paid any tax, they’ve received $15 billion in federal refunds.

• Bank of America, America International Group, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup all took government bailouts, and all hide profits in places like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.

Here are a couple of companies who report their actual profits in the U.S. and pay their taxes:

• Home Depot- ave. Tax Rate 2007-2009- 35.4 percent

• Disney –ave. Tax Rate 2007-2009 - 36.5 percent

• CVS - ave. Tax Rate 2007-2009: 38.8 percent

Sources:

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/ge_7000_tax_returns/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/obama-picks-jeffrey-immel-ge...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-j-thorndike/will-business-kill-t...

http://www.taxanalysts.com/www/features.nsf/Articles/5FED9F07CCD44CEA...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/us/politics/20congress.html?partner...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60...

http://hubpages.com/hub/uscontractorsavoidpayingtaxes