Deirdre Cummings
Legislative Director, MASSPIRG
617-747-4319
[email protected]
On Tax Day, New Report Showing US Corporations Avoid Taxes
Media Contacts
$100 Billion Lost Through Off-shore Tax Havens
MASSPIRG
Boston, MA –Major US corporations avoid as much as $100 billion a year in federal taxes by hiding profits in foreign countries. According to a MASSPIRG report (www.masspirg.org), released today this loophole results in almost $3 billion in additional tax burden for taxpayers here in Massachusetts.
“President Obama wants to fix a tax code that has been carved and twisted by banks and corporations,” said Deirdre Cummings, Legislative Director for MASSPIRG. “Today should be the last Tax Day when high-priced accountants and secret post office boxes are valued over hard work and accountability.”
Over 80 percent of the largest companies in the US hide profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. The companies include American Express, A.I.G, Boeing, Cisco, Dow, Hewlett-Packard, J.P. Morgan Chase and Pfizer. In fact, over 18,000 U.S. companies currently maintain a post office box in one five story building in the Cayman Islands to take advantage of the loophole.
Obama’s budget proposal, which is working its way towards final passage in the Congress, recommends closing this outrageous loophole and giving additional tax relief to middle-class taxpayers. MASSPIRG urged members of congress to pass President Obama’s budget blueprint.
“The weight of these tax-dodgers is being carried by the rest of us and it is simply unfair,” Nichole Tichon, U.S.PIRG added, “The President’s budget plan fully turns the page on the failed policies of the past by ending wasteful corporate handouts and investing instead in important priorities that were shortchanged in the past. We simply can not make an economy that works for everyone without restoring fairness to the tax code, fixing our broken health care system, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and investing in tomorrow’s educated workforce. And that’s what the President’s budget is all about.”