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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Study: Offshore Tax Havens Raising U.S. Taxpayers’ Bills

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Friday, April 15, 2016   

RICHMOND, Va, - Between the Panama Papers and the tax deadlines, a lot of Americans are wondering if their tax bills would be smaller if everyone paid their share.

Nearly three-quarters of all Fortune 500 companies use legal techniques to hide their income overseas and cut their tax bills, according to the "Offshore Shell Games" report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Citizens for Tax Justice. Out of those approximately 350 companies, said Ana Owens, the group's tax and budget advocate, PIRG only could figure out how much 56 of those companies saved. Even for just those corporations, she said, the total was $170 billion a year.

"That would be equal to the entire state budgets of California, Virginia and Indiana combined," she said. "While everyone is doing their taxes, these multinational corporations are really putting the burden on average Americans."

Some of the firms have defended the practices as totally legal and say they would be foolish not to use them when their competitors do.

Owens said many of the corporations are based here and do business here, taking advantage of America's business climate, workforce and consumers. She added, however, that legal fictions allow them to pretend they're making their money overseas. For example, she said, they can set up a shell company in the Cayman Islands and transfer the patents for their most profitable products to that firm.

"Then, when they sell that drug or that piece of technology in the U.S., their U.S. company has to pay their foreign subsidiary the licensing fee," she said. "On paper, they're losing money in the U.S., when really they're just shifting their profits offshore."

Owens said a bill in Congress called the Stop Tax Havens Abuse Act could close many of those loopholes. She said many people also are pressing for comprehensive tax reform next year, although it is likely to be a struggle.

The full report is online at uspirg.org.


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