New Study: 82 of Top 100 Companies Used Tax Havens in 2012

Companies Hold $1.2 Trillion Offshore, Untaxed by U.S.

OSPIRG

Of the top 100 publicly traded companies, as measured by revenue, 82 maintain subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, according to a new OSPIRG study out today. Collectively, the companies report holding nearly $1.2 trillion offshore, with 15 companies accounting for two-thirds of the offshore cash.

This tax dodging affects both state and federal budgets. The Oregon legislature recently passed a bill that will keep some of this money in Oregon by requiring that companies that maintain subsidiaries in offshore tax havens add the money stashed offshore to their Oregon taxable income. This measure, House Bill 2460, is estimated to keep $18 million in Oregon in 2014 and more in future years. This is only a drop in the bucket of the estimated $283 million lost to the Oregon state budget because of offshore tax haven abuse by large corporations, according to an OSPIRG study released earlier this year.

“The Oregon legislature has taken an important step to ending offshore tax haven abuse, but until the federal government cracks down on this tax dodging too, the rest of us will continue to pay the price, either through higher taxes, cuts to important programs, or a bigger deficit,” said Celeste Meiffren, OSPIRG’s Consumer and Taxpayer Advocate. “And with tight budgets on the state and federal level, Congress should act quickly.”

Every year, U.S. corporations avoid paying an estimated $90 billion in federal taxes by stashing profits in offshore tax havens. OSPIRG’s new study shows that while most large companies use tax havens, the benefits of offshore tax loopholes are especially concentrated among a narrow set of companies.

Key findings of the report include: 

– 82 of the top 100 publicly traded U.S. companies operate subsidiaries in tax haven jurisdictions, as of 2012. All told, these 82 companies maintain 2,686 tax haven subsidiaries. The 15 companies with the most money held offshore collectively operate 1,897 tax haven subsidiaries. 

– The 15 companies with the most money offshore hold a combined $776 billion overseas. That is 66 percent of the nearly $1.2 trillion that the top 100 companies report holding offshore.

– Only 21 of the top 100 publicly traded companies disclose the amount they would expect to pay in U.S. taxes if they didn’t keep profits offshore. All told, these 21 companies would collectively owe more than $98 billion in additional federal taxes, which is more than the entire state budget of California. The average tax rate the 21 companies currently pay to other countries on this income is a mere 6.7 percent.

Companies highlighted by the study include:

Bank of America: The bank reports having 316 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens – more than any other company. The bank, which was kept afloat by taxpayers during the 2008 financial meltdown, now keeps $17.2 billion offshore, on which it would otherwise owe $4.5 billion in U.S. taxes.

Oracle: The tech giant reports having $20.9 billion stored offshore and maintaining five subsidiaries in offshore tax havens. The company disclosed that it would owe $7.3 billion in U.S. taxes on those profits if they were not offshore. Oracle currently pays a tax rate of less than one percent to foreign governments on its offshore cash, suggesting that most of the money is kept in tax havens.

Google: The company reported operating 25 subsidiaries in tax havens in 2009, but since 2010 only discloses two, both in Ireland. During that period, it increased the amount of cash it had reported offshore from $7.7 billion to $33.3 billion. An academic analysis found that, as of 2012, the 23 no-longer-disclosed tax haven subsidiaries were still operating but that Google was choosing not to include them in its annual filings.

“These companies benefit from America’s infrastructure, educated workforce, security, and access to the largest consumer market in the world. They should not be able to use loopholes to get out of paying for it,” added Meiffren.

The report concludes that to end tax haven abuse, Congress should end incentives for companies to shift profits offshore, close the most egregious offshore loopholes, strengthen tax enforcement, and increase transparency.

You can download the report, “Offshore Shell Games,” herehttp://ospirg.org/reports/orp/offshore-shell-games

You can download OSPIRG’s earlier report, “The Hidden Cost of Offshore Tax Havens: State Budgets Under Pressure from Tax Haven Abuse,” herehttp://ospirg.org/reports/orp/hidden-cost-offshore-tax-havens