A new study reveals Fortune 500 companies are holding nearly
$2.5 trillion in accumulated profits offshore to pay less tax. The $215 billion
Apple booked offshore through three tax havens last year is bigger than the
gross domestic product of Portugal, Greece or New Zealand. If the company
returned the earnings to the US and paid the $65.4 billion in tax, it would
have been more than economies of Belarus, Uruguay or Croatia.
According to the authors, the second biggest tax avoider is
pharmaceutical giant Pfizer with 181 offshore subsidiaries and almost $194 billion
of profits booked offshore.
Number three is
Microsoft with five tax haven subsidiaries and $124 billion of profits held
offshore.
Sneaker giant Nike holds $10.7 billion offshore and would
owe $3.6 billion in US taxes. One of the authors of the report, Citizens for
Tax Justice, has noted that Nike’s offshore companies in Bermuda are named
after its own brands, like Air Max Limited, Nike Cortez, Nike Flight, Nike
Force, Nike Huarache, Nike Jump Ltd., Nike Lavadome, Nike Pegasus, Nike
Tailwind and Nike Waffle.
Goldman Sachs holds $28.6 billion offshore, but “reports
having 987 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, 537 of which are in the Cayman
Islands despite not operating a single legitimate office in that country,
according to its own website.”
If all the Fortune 500 companies paid taxes on their profits
in the US, the country would get an additional $717.8 billion. In 2015, the US
budget deficit stood at $438 billion.
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