Turks and Caicos
Credit: thurksandcaicostourism

Big multinational companies that shelter overseas profit from federal taxation cost the U.S. economy more than $100 billion a year by withholding more than $1 trillion collectively, according to a new study that may inflame the debate over tax fairness.

This week, anti-poverty group Oxfam America published a report that analyzed the financial reports of the 50 largest publicly traded U.S. companies. The organization found that behemoths such as Apple, General Electric, Microsoft and Google engage in tax havens that costs the U.S. $111 billion annually. Apple was cited by Oxfam as one of the biggest corporate offenders, holding some $181 billion in money offshore, followed by GE’s $119 billion and Microsoft’s $108 billion.

The U.S’s effective corporate tax rate is 35 percent, but the study found that companies used a variety of tax strategies to cut that rate to just 26.5 percent—with only 5 of the 50 companies paying the full 35 percent.

The Oxfam […]