Slashdot Mirror
GAO Reports Bailout and Tech Firms Love Tax Havens
theodp writes "Most of America's largest publicly traded corporations and Federal contractors — including those receiving billions of dollars from US taxpayers to finance their recovery — have set up offshore operations that could help them avoid paying US taxes, according to a GAO study released yesterday. Of the 100 largest public companies, 83 do business in tax-haven hot-spots like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and the British Virgin Islands. The report found that Citigroup, a recipient of $45B in bailout funds so far, has set up 427 subsidiaries in tax-haven countries, including 91 in Luxembourg, 90 in the Cayman Islands, and 35 in the British Virgin Islands. Household names on the lists from the tech sector include Apple (1 tax haven subsidiary), Cisco (38), Dell (29), HP (14), Intel (6), IBM (10), Microsoft (8), Motorola (4), and Oracle (77)."
To drive the economy, you want the people with the LEAST money to spend MORE money.
The VELOCITY of the money is what drives our tax system. The government gets more taxes if a dollar is used 100 times than if it is used 10 times.
Buying a pizza - taxed. ... etc
Pizza shop owner pays delivery guy - taxed.
Delivery guy goes to dinner with his girlfriend - taxed.
Restaurant owner pays cook - taxed.
Cook buys muffler for car - taxed.
Pump enough money into the lower economic rungs and more pizza delivery guys will have to be hired to meet the demand for more pizzas.
Give the money to some company that's going to stash it in an off-shore tax haven ... the US jobs stagnate.