Bank of “I take tax payer dollars and have tax havens to avoid paying taxes” America
It’s so nice to see a major employer of Delaware acting like true patriots…
A majority of America’s largest publicly traded companies and the U.S. government’s largest federal contractors — including some receiving millions in federal bailout money — use multiple subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to conduct business and avoid paying U.S. taxes, a new report finds.
The new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, released today by Sens. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), lists Citigroup and Morgan Stanley as having set up hundreds of tax haven subsidiaries, along with American International Group and Bank of America. Also in the tax-haven list are well-known companies and such federal contractors as American Express, Pepsi and Caterpillar.
It is a pretty sweet deal if you think about. They take tax payer dollars, about 50,000,000,000.03 and build off shore tax havens to avoid paying taxes. It’s double the fun. Take tax dollars to stay in business and then not pay taxes to pay the CEO $50,000,000.00 a year.
Brilliant! Bank of America is such an awesome name! So patriotic
Isn’t this simply the way conservatives like to do business? This is one of the things that has steamed me up for years. The kind of thing that provokes a visceral reaction that doesn’t allow for any rational defense from someone who claims I’m being irrational. Kind of how the abortion and gay rights issues provoke an immediate response in me, research and rationale be damned.
These fucking companies build offshore tax havens WITH OUR FUCKING TAX DOLLARS so they don’t have to PAY THEIR OWN FUCKING TAXES.
This is the type of unfettered free-market economy that conservatives so freely espouse.
Fuck ’em.
Amen, MM!
This stuff really, really pisses me off. I hope that Congress will close loopholes that allow corporations to use tax havens to avoid tax. I also think there should be punishment – non-U.S. companies should not be eligible for government contracts or government bailouts.
I wish there was a way to take the money back. Why isn’t this considered treasonous behavior?
Taxes = Bad
Taxes make US businesses less competitive. Bank executives would be guilty of business malpractice if they did not try to get out of paying taxes.
I’d thought I’d give the Mike Protack/Dave Burris view since it is Sunday and they might not be checking in.
The unfortunate Grover Norquist has been telling folks that making businesses pay taxes is just like torture. Seriously. Somehow Ireland has been held up as a low tax haven.
Which, I think represents an interesting revenue opportunity. Have the Congress offer to instate Ireland’s tax rate (15%??), in return for wiping the tax code clean of every business tax break ever written. (The Irish Tax code provides few loopholes for businesses). That strikes me as a tax plan that small businesses would love (since they can’t take advantage of alot of the breaks) and would force large businesses to finally pay the fuck up like the rest of us.
“Some one” said, in NYTs President Obama should round up 600 bankers in the Oval Office and read ’em the riot act.
Not a bad idea…but would it have the desired effect (to paraphrase Osoma bin Ladin: ‘Death to the American bankers.’)