{"id":80201,"date":"2016-05-01T20:35:36","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T00:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/blog\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2022-08-19T15:11:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T19:11:36","slug":"how-much-cash-do-tech-firms-stash-overseas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/how-much-cash-do-tech-firms-stash-overseas\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Cash Do Tech Firms Stash Overseas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HowA new report<\/a> (PDF) from charity Oxfam<\/a> says American companies<\/strong> stash a significant part of their cash overseas<\/strong> to take advantage of more favorable tax laws<\/strong> in other countries. They claim that tech companies take particular advantage of this practice, also known as “tax havens<\/a><\/strong>.” Oxfam which is crusading to get the U.S. government to crack down on this practice says tax havens costs the United States more than $100 billion a year in lost tax revenue.<\/p>\n

\"Tech<\/a>The Business Insider<\/a><\/em> brought<\/a> us this Statista<\/a> chart, based on the Oxfam report. Tech firms<\/strong> are hoarding nearly $500 Billion in cash overseas<\/strong>. The chart shows how much money major US tech companies have stashed overseas, and how many subsidiaries they have set up in countries that Oxfam defines as tax havens<\/strong>, “which can be characterized by secrecy, low- or zero-tax rates, and the almost complete lack of disclosure of any relevant business information.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

While tech is the most prominent sector on Oxfam’s list, the article claims tech is not alone \u2014 large companies<\/strong> in other sectors like General Electric<\/a> ($119 billion), Pfizer<\/a> ($74 billion), Merck<\/a> ($60 billion), and Exxon Mobile<\/a> ($51 billion) also have lots of cash stashed overseas<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing illegal about this practice. But Oxfam believes it contributes to i<\/strong>ncome<\/strong> inequality. They are urging U.S. lawmakers to make it harder for companies to use international tax laws to their advantage in this way.<\/p>\n

\"money<\/a>Overseas tax havens have been the focus of recent revelations about tax scams by wealthy people<\/strong>, based on the leak of the \u201cPanama Papers<\/a><\/strong>,\u201d documents from a single Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca, involving 214,000 offshore shell companies. The firm\u2019s clients included 29 billionaires and 140 top politicians worldwide, among them a dozen heads of government.<\/p>\n

rb-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This list looks a lot like the one for the top lobbying spender firms. I wrote about the tech titans lobbying efforts just a couple of weeks ago here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Rank<\/th>Firm<\/th>Cash $ held off shore<\/th>Lobbying rank<\/th>Lobbying $ spending<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1<\/td>Apple<\/td>181.1B<\/td>10<\/td>4.5M<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>Microsoft<\/td>108.3B<\/td>7<\/td>8.5M<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>IBM<\/td>61.4B<\/td>11<\/td>4.6M<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>Cisco<\/td>52.7B<\/td>14<\/td>2.7M<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>Alphabet\/Google<\/td>47.4B<\/td>1<\/td>16.6M<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>HP<\/td>42.9B<\/td><\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>Oracle<\/td>38.0B<\/td>13<\/td>4.5M<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n
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