Worried about the federal deficit? Then you're worried about foreign tax havens, the use of which is costing the U.S. $150 billion (http://www.uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/Picking_Up_the_Tab_2013_USPIRG.pdf) per year in the form of lost tax revenues, according to academic studies cited by a recent report from U.S. PIRG, a left-leaning consumer group. To break it down, corporations account for $90 billion of the lost revenue, and individuals make up the other $60 billion.
Offshore tax evasion has become a hot-button issue of late, after a September Senate report alleged Apple, Google and Microsoft moved profits (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/microsoft-taxes-profits-offshore_n_1901398.html) overseas in an aim to dodge taxes. Overall, U.S. companies are now holding a record $1.9 trillion of their profits abroad, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
Corporations aren't the only ones keeping their money overseas, however. A Center for Public Integrity report released Wednesday (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/offshore-companies-politicians_n_3008426.html) found that the list of people dodging taxes through foreign havens include:
American doctors and dentists and middle-class Greek villagers as well as families and associates of long-time despots, Wall Street swindlers, Eastern European and Indonesian billionaires, Russian corporate executives, international arms dealers and a sham-director-fronted company that the European Union has labeled as a cog in Iran's nuclear-development program.
(Hat tip: CBS News (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57577914/report-big-business-no-stranger-to-offshore-tax-havens/))
Via: HuffingtonPost