Guess who's not paying their taxes?
The following index ran in this week's Facing South e-newsletter. If you're not receiving that yet but would like to, please fill out the "Newsletter" form on the upper-right side of this page. (We won't share your e-mail address with anyone.) To go to the original sources, click on the hot-linked figures.
Estimated value of assets the IRS believes to be held in offshore tax havens, countries with nominal taxes and minimal reporting requirements: $5 trillion
Number of countries that aggressively market themselves as tax havens: at least 40
Percent of the biggest U.S. corporations that utilize tax havens: 80
Number of U.S. companies that maintain post office boxes in one 5-story building in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven: over 18,000
Number of tax havens used by Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America: 115
Number of Bank of America tax havens in the Cayman Islands: 59
Estimated annual cost of offshore tax havens to U.S. taxpayers: $100 billion
Estimated annual cost of offshore tax havens to U.S. taxpayers in the 13 Southern states*: $28,712,758,673
Estimated annual cost of offshore tax havens to U.S. taxpayers in Texas alone: $8,653,820,259
Number of people working in Iraq for Houston-based KBR who were listed as employees of two shell companies that exist only as computer files in a Cayman Islands office: 21,000
Under the arrangement, which KBR admits it created to avoid payroll taxes, amount in unemployment assistance those employees are entitled to collect should they lose their jobs: $0
Proportion of U.S. corporations that paid no income taxes between 1998 and 2005, due largely to the use of offshore tax havens and other tax dodges: 2/3
Estimated amount of money that would be generated for the Treasury if the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act were approved by Congress: $100 billion
* AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV
(Photo of Bank of America ATM by Brian Katt; for license information, click here.)
Estimated value of assets the IRS believes to be held in offshore tax havens, countries with nominal taxes and minimal reporting requirements: $5 trillion
Number of countries that aggressively market themselves as tax havens: at least 40
Percent of the biggest U.S. corporations that utilize tax havens: 80
Number of U.S. companies that maintain post office boxes in one 5-story building in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven: over 18,000
Number of tax havens used by Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America: 115
Number of Bank of America tax havens in the Cayman Islands: 59
Estimated annual cost of offshore tax havens to U.S. taxpayers: $100 billion
Estimated annual cost of offshore tax havens to U.S. taxpayers in the 13 Southern states*: $28,712,758,673
Estimated annual cost of offshore tax havens to U.S. taxpayers in Texas alone: $8,653,820,259
Number of people working in Iraq for Houston-based KBR who were listed as employees of two shell companies that exist only as computer files in a Cayman Islands office: 21,000
Under the arrangement, which KBR admits it created to avoid payroll taxes, amount in unemployment assistance those employees are entitled to collect should they lose their jobs: $0
Proportion of U.S. corporations that paid no income taxes between 1998 and 2005, due largely to the use of offshore tax havens and other tax dodges: 2/3
Estimated amount of money that would be generated for the Treasury if the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act were approved by Congress: $100 billion
* AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV
(Photo of Bank of America ATM by Brian Katt; for license information, click here.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.