2016年4月14日
Fifty biggest global US companies stash US$1.3 trillion offshore (只有英文版)
The 50 biggest US companies have more than a trillion dollars hidden offshore according to a new report published by Oxfam today. This is more than the entire GDP of countries such as Spain, Mexico or Australia.
The companies, which include global brands such as Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical, Chevron, Walmart, IBM, and Procter and Gamble, have more than 1,600 subsidiaries in tax havens. It's estimated that tax dodging by multinational companies costs countries around the world up to US$240 billion annually.
The report, ‘Broken at the Top’, found that the companies ‒ which together made nearly US$4 trillion in profits globally between 2008 and 2014 ‒ received a staggering US$11 trillion in US government support over the same period. Oxfam calculates that during this period, these companies collectively received approximately US$27 in government support for every US$1 they paid in federal taxes.
The revelations come in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal that, once again, revealed how powerful individuals and companies are using tax havens to hide their wealth and dodge taxes.
Robbie Silverman, Senior Tax Advisor at Oxfam said: ‘Yet again we have evidence of a massive systematic abuse of the global tax system. We can’t go on with a situation where the rich and powerful are not paying their fair share of tax, leaving the rest of us to foot the bill. Governments across the globe must come together now to end the era of tax havens.’
Tax avoidance has become standard business practice across the globe. Oxfam estimates that 90 per cent of the top 200 global companies use tax havens.
‘The same tricks and tools used by multinational companies to dodge tax in the US are being used to cheat countries across the world out of their fair share of tax revenues, with devastating consequences. Poor countries are particularly hard hit, losing an estimated US$100 billion a year to corporate tax dodgers. This is enough to provide safe water and sanitation to more than 2.2 billion people’, said Silverman.
The 50 companies spent approximately US$2.6 billion lobbying the US government to maintain favourable tax rules and other beneficial policies between 2008 and 2014. Elsewhere, a conservative estimate of the amount spent on EU lobbying each year is US$1.7 billion. Corporate lobbying generates an incredible rate of return. Oxfam estimates that for every US$1 spent on lobbying, the 50 big US companies collectively received US$130 in tax breaks and more than US$4,000 in subsidies from the US government.
Silverman said, ‘When corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes governments are forced to cut back on essential services or levy higher taxes on the rest of us. It’s time governments stopped pandering to big business and started working for the good of their citizens.’
‘Broken at the Top’ outlines a range of tricks, tools, and loopholes companies use to avoid paying tax. One of the most common is profit shifting, where a company declares its profits in a low or zero tax jurisdictions instead of where they actually do business. In 2012, for example, US companies reported US$80 billion in profits in the tiny island of Bermuda – more than their reported profits in Japan, China, Germany and France combined.
Oxfam is calling for governments to work together to ensure multinational companies and wealthy individuals pay their fair share of tax. This must include measures to ensure companies pay taxes where they do business and to stop the secrecy that enables companies and individuals to hide their money from tax authorities.
Notes to editors
The report, ‘Broken at the Top – How America’s dysfunctional tax system costs billions in
corporate tax dodging’, is available here.
Oxfam analysed the tax affairs of the 50 largest public companies in the US including: Alphabet (Google), American Express, American International Group (AIG), Amgen, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Boeing, Capital One Financial, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Comcast, ConocoPhillips, CVS Health, Dow Chemical, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor, General Electric, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Honeywell International, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, Merck, MetLife, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Oracle, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Phillips 66, Procter & Gamble, Prudential Financial, Qualcomm, Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., United Technologies, UnitedHealth Group, US Bancorp, Verizon Communications, Wal-Mart Stores, Walt Disney, and Wells Fargo.