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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Not paying their dues

 In 2008, Congress approved a $700 billion bail-out to Wall Street and another $16 trillion at virtually zero interest plus other financial assistance came from the Federal Reserve. America. The Cayman Islands is "home" to more than 18,000 corporations.

In 2010, Bank of America set up more than 200 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands (which has a corporate tax rate of zero percent) to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Not only did Bank of America pay nothing in federal income taxes, but it received a rebate from the IRS worth $1.9 billion that year. In 2010, JP Morgan Chase operated 83 subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens to avoid paying some $4.9 billion in U.S. taxes. That same year Goldman Sachs operated 39 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to avoid an estimated $3.3 billion in U.S. taxes. Citigroup has paid no federal income taxes for the last four years after receiving a total of $2.5 trillion in financial assistance from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.

Offshore tax abuse is not just limited to Wall Street. Each and every year corporations and the wealthy are avoiding more than $100 billion in U.S. taxes by sheltering their income offshore. Pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly and Pfizer who have fought to make it illegal for the American people to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and Europe. But Eli Lilly and Pfizer shift drug patents and profits to the Netherlands and other offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

Apple shifts most of its profits to Ireland, Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Without such maneuvers, Apple's federal tax bill in the United States would have been $2.4 billion higher in 2011.

The economic "recovery" is underway for them following the bailouts for them. The costs of the bailouts have not been paid for by higher taxes on corporations and the rich.

 On December 31 the payroll tax on workers' wages and salaries increased from 4.2 to 6.2 percent.

 Taken from here

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