US Corp: $2.1 trillion in tax havens abroad, cheating the American taxpayers

[josephpalazzo]

The largest 500 U.S. companies would owe an estimated $620 billion in U.S. taxes were it not for the more than $2.1 trillion in offshore cash that most of the firms hold in foreign tax havens, according to a study Offshore Shell Games

Top of the list:

(1) Apple with $181.1 billion. If those profits were taxed at U.S. rates, the company would pay $59.2 billion.

(2) General Electric with  $119 billion.

(3) Microsoft holds $108.3 billion in offshore cash.

[aitm]

0 fucks given by congress. They get their money.

[josephpalazzo]

There's not enough rage in the population, and so many, among them certain politicians, get away with anything. I mean $620 billions are being whisked away, and that's every year. Fuck, if people don't get it, and money is something everyone understands, nothing will.

[Baruch]

There's not enough rage in the population, and so many, among them certain politicians, get away with anything. I mean $620 billions are being whisked away, and that's every year. Fuck, if people don't get it, and money is something everyone understands, nothing will.

I wish people did understand money ... but they don't.  Most people are innumerate and their ideas of society are little different than children hunting for Easter eggs.  Even educated people have as much agreement on money, as theologians do about G-d.

Now I am neither for nor against taxation.  It is just something that all governments do ... and it can be done smartly or stupidly.  Lately it seems that stupidity is on the upswing.

[josephpalazzo]

I wish people did understand money ... but they don't.

They may not understand economic principles but people understand money, especially when it hurts their pocket.

Now I am neither for nor against taxation. 

Politicians count on people like you who don't give a shit.

[SGOS]

I didn't realize Apple was at the top of the list.  Oddly, just the other day, I was talking to my ex on the phone, and she said she refuses to buy anything made by Apple for that reason alone.

[Baruch]

They may not understand economic principles but people understand money, especially when it hurts their pocket.

Politicians count on people like you who don't give a shit.

We will have to differ on both points.  And you do "project" a little much, if I might be Freudian for a moment.

[jonb]

If it was only that it escaped taxes, would be one thing, but the problem is this money is then used to stifle competition, giving the big players almost total control of the markets, and in the longer run stifles the innovation which is what gives western society its edge.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Little peanuts. Look at the states refusing medicaid expansion. Most of the voters in those states will tell you that it's THEIR TAXES that pay for someone else in other states to get medicaid and health care and how unfair it is.
What they never see is it's their own states refusal to accept the expansion and how much it actually cost them by not taking advantage of it. The republicans have a hell of a scam. They get elected and reelected for not getting health care for their own citizens when they're still paying for it.
Ask yourself if your elected officials came to you and said, "You should pay for something you'll never get a single benefit from and vote for me to make sure you never get it." should you vote for them?

[Baruch]

Unfortunately all of politics is a hell of a scam .. including George Washington.  And I say that as a non-anarchist and patriot.  For me government is more than the rotten core of politicians at the center of it.

[hrdlr110]

If it was only that it escaped taxes, would be one thing, but the problem is this money is then used to stifle competition, giving the big players almost total control of the markets, and in the longer run stifles the innovation which is what gives western society its edge.

No, the tax money is a big thing. Tax that could go toward infrastructure that they use, education that could be subsidized, providing access to some where before there was none. This list could go on as a giant wall of text that nobody would read, so I'll stop ............here.

[josephpalazzo]

We will have to differ on both points.  And you do "project" a little much, if I might be Freudian for a moment.

It's not a question of having different points of view but that you are a total ignoramus when it comes to economic matter, and that you are in total denial of that fact. Just because you might have read some books written for the public on such things doesn't make you educated in that field. It's like someone reading a wikipage on Quantum Mechanics, and then you think you know the subject. No, you don't.

[Baruch]

It's not a question of having different points of view but that you are a total ignoramus when it comes to economic matter, and that you are in total denial of that fact. Just because you might have read some books written for the public on such things doesn't make you educated in that field. It's like someone reading a wikipage on Quantum Mechanics, and then you think you know the subject. No, you don't.

Please get back on your meds ;-)  I am only an interested amateur in physics ... but I actually can see thru the economics fraud ... and you cannot.  Ideology is like that.

[josephpalazzo]

I am only an interested amateur in physics ... but I actually can see thru the economics fraud ... and you cannot.  Ideology is like that.

This is where you show your ignorance. Politicians might use economics in a fraudulent way, and many do that unfortunately, but economics is in itself neutral. Same with science. That's why an educated population would nix at the voting station any politician who doesn't have a rudiment grasp of sound economic principle. Unfortunately, the population at large is clueless about the subject, leaving wide open doors for the unscrupulous politician to get away with it.

[Baruch]

This is where you show your ignorance. Politicians might use economics in a fraudulent way, and many do that unfortunately, but economics is in itself neutral. Same with science. That's why an educated population would nix at the voting station any politician who doesn't have a rudiment grasp of sound economic principle. Unfortunately, the population at large is clueless about the subject, leaving wide open doors for the unscrupulous politician to get away with it.

If economics were only about bushels of wheat ... then one can come to an objective judgement.  But once money is involved, and it has since the price system replaced barter long ago ... we are left with spooky action at a distance ... from the Treasury.  This is where Adam Smith fails ... he believes there is a free market, that doesn't involve price fixing in high places ... but it isn't real ... price fixing is always a tempting necessity.  Supply, demand and price have always been too important to be left to any free market.  Oligopoly and oligopsony are the norm ... just like "fixed" elections.