MarketWatch: Trump-Ryan Tax Plan Will Encourage More Corporate Offshore Tax Avoidance

The figures are staggering. At least 366 of the Fortune 500 companies have established subsidiaries in tax-haven countries. The companies pay an average tax rate of 6.1% on their “foreign” earnings, evading a cumulative $750 billion in federal taxes, according to a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Some of these foreign subsidiaries are legitimate businesses, with actual operations that produce actual goods and services. But many are an accounting fiction, created for the sole purpose of evading taxes. For instance, U.S. companies claim to earn profits in Bermuda that are 18 times larger than the island’s gross domestic product. Read more