skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

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.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

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.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: $190 Billion Lost to Offshore Tax Dodges

play audio
Play

Monday, February 11, 2013   

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Offshore tax havens are blowing a huge hole in state and federal tax systems, according to a new report, which puts the total revenue lost at almost $200 billion dollars a year. That's enough to not only stop the automatic federal spending cuts threatened for March 1, but also to cover all state and local firefighting budgets nationwide for a year.

Dan Smith wrote "The Hidden Cost of Offshore Tax Havens" for the watchdog organization U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), where he is a tax and budget advocate. He said they estimate the United States loses $150 billion a year, and states lose another $40 billion, including $380 million to Kentucky.

"It's not a victimless offense," Smith charged. "The winners are the big banks, pharmaceuticals and high tech companies. And the losers are small businesses and ordinary taxpayers."

Defenders of the tax havens say they help firms dodge a high corporate income tax rate, and that companies might relocate if the loopholes were closed. But Smith argued that few companies pay the full corporate tax rate. And he said they're unlikely to leave the U.S., because the work is done here and the products are sold here.

Smith said many corporate subsidiaries are little more than a complicated legal fiction. Products might be created and sold in the U.S., but the profits can magically bounce around the world before ending up in a Caribbean PO box.

"In the Cayman Islands there is actually a single building, five stories tall, that has nearly 19,000 corporate headquarters registered to it," he asserted.

At $380 million in annual revenue lost from individual and corporate income taxes, the report ranks Kentucky 26th among the states. California is at the top of the state list, losing more than $7 billion a year in tax revenue.

The report is at USPIRGEdFund.org.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …


Organizations fighting wage theft said it harms affected workers and surrounding communities because the money withheld is not being circulated through the local economy. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

Environment

play sound

A farm group is helping Iowa agriculture producers find ways to reduce the amount of nitrogen they use on their crops. Excess nitrates can wind up …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021