Banking, finance, and taxes

50 US Companies Have $1.3 Trillion Offshore

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: April 14, 2016 4:46 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 10:48 am

Oxfam reports that 50 U.S. companies have $1.3 trillion offshore. It is hard to figure out why it matters to Oxfam, but the data are true nonetheless. Presumably if the money was moved to the United States, the companies would have to pay tax on it. The name of the report is “Broken at the Top – How America’s dysfunctional tax system costs billions in corporate tax dodging.”

According to Oxfam executive:

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.”

The companies include International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG). In most, if not all cases, the companies are taking advantage of the tax system rather than committing illegal acts. The solution is a revision of the tax system.

The list of 50:

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.

Many in the U.S. should take the advice of some experts and use a tax amnesty to get the money back to where the companies have headquarters.