QUOTE OF THE DAY
“In 2010, Bank of America set up more than 200 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands (which has a corporate tax rate of 0.0 percent) to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It worked. Not only did Bank of America pay nothing in federal income taxes, but it received a rebate from the IRS worth $1.9 billion that year. They are not alone. In 2010, JP Morgan Chase operated 83 subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens to avoid paying some $4.9 billion in U.S. taxes. That same year Goldman Sachs operated 39 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to avoid an estimated $3.3 billion in U.S. taxes. Citigroup has paid no federal income taxes for the last four years after receiving a total of $2.5 trillion in financial assistance from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.On and on it goes. Wall Street banks and large companies love America when they need corporate welfare. But when it comes to paying American taxes or American wages, they want nothing to do with this country. That has got to change.
Here’s the simple truth. You can’t be an American company only when you want a massive bailout from the American people. You have also got to be an American company, and pay your fair share of taxes, as we struggle with the deficit and adequate funding for the needs of the American people. If Wall Street and corporate America don’t agree, the next time they need a bailout let them go to the Cayman Islands, let them go to Bermuda, let them go to the Bahamas and let them ask those countries for corporate welfare.”
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Needless to say, Bernie is a national treasure.
February 11th, 2013 at 2:47 pm
Can I do this as an individual? After all, corporations are people too.
February 11th, 2013 at 3:05 pm
But, but, but all our financial problems will be solved if we make grandma pay income tax on her meager social security benefits (and eliminate her Medicare altogether). Don’t worry about the BILLIONS those banks have weaseled out of while we were giving them zero interest loans to cover the collapse they cause with their criminal activities.
February 11th, 2013 at 3:42 pm
The culture of greed and entitlement is still alive and well in the financial and energy sectors and until we have (i.e.: elect) politicians that are willing to change this it will remain so. Even I as a foreigner love Senator Bernie Sanders. You guys need more like him as do we in Canada.
February 12th, 2013 at 4:39 pm
Easy.. you make corporations pay tax on ALL funds held/managed/etc, and deem all subsidiaries as part of the parent. But let them have the benefit of only paying the gap between whatever rate they pay overseas, and what is due inside the country. That way they can’t complain that they’ve been taxed ‘twice’…