Tax Shelters or Tax Havens are not patriotic. Out of 100 of Americas largest Companies 83 have Tax Havens. Companies use tax havens in order to pay little to no taxes. The average Joe Blow who makes $50,000.00 a year will pay 25% in taxes, a company will pay 35% in taxes, unless they have set up a shell company in let’s say the Cayman Islands, In that case Joe Blow still pays 25% and the company? Well they pay 0% in taxes. The Cayman Islands has a 5 story building called Ugland House it is headquarters to 18,857 Companies. Enron, which perpetrated a global fraud, had 700 subsidiaries registered at the Ugland House.
To get set up all a business needs is one director and one shareholder. No public filling requirements or filings of annual returns and no requirements for audited accounts. There are nearly 65 tax havens around the world including Malta, Cyprus, Singapore and a number of countries in the Caribbean.
Some of the advantages of Tax Shelters include secrecy for the investors, allowing offshore wealth to be kept safe from lawsuits creditors and even the IRS. Shelters can also be used to avoid estate taxes.
President Obama plans to make good on his campaign promise to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. The changes would raise an estimated $210 billion over the next decade and help offset tax cuts for middle-income taxpayers. Some of the overseas subsidiaries with tax shelters are Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble and even G.E. This is a test to see if President Obama can stand up to some of the most powerful interest among lawmakers.
It amazes me that Republicans are ok with these corporations defrauding the Government. They talk about Patriotism, well; I think they are insane to think they are being patriotic by screwing the American People out of Billions of dollars each year. A 2008 Senate report estimated that "the United States loses an estimated $100 billion in tax revenues due to offshore tax abuses" every year. We as tax payers have to pick up the slack. I am sick of not only paying their fare share of taxes and then paying ridiculous prices for their products. They have a lot of nerve opposing the “crackdown” on offshore tax havens. I am amazed we have let them get away with it for so long. It is about time we bring jobs back to the United States.
For all of those Republicans who make less than $250,000 a year, put your pitchfork down, and pick up some reading material, learn for yourself, you will pay less in taxes. Don’t let the GOP use you anymore. All of you “Tea baggers” please understand that if the CEO’s attended your little parties it would look bad so they send their mindless drones to do their dirty work. What’s wrong with you paying fewer taxes? Who cares about Big Business we have been making them fortunes for way too long? Let them handle it...
