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from the luxembourg-shuffle-fulfilled-by-amazon dept.
In 2012, something like US$80 billion worth of multinationals' profits worked on their suntans in Bermuda, according to an international report into profit-shuffling and tax avoidance.
Oxfam, the Tax Justice Network, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, and Public Services International have put their heads and wallets together to fund a report into how multinationals are picking the pockets of G20 nations.
In one way, it's no surprise: the world's top economies are, pretty much by definition, the places where multinationals will make the most money. However, they also have the best resources to try and get companies to pay their taxes, and if the Oxfam et al report is accurate, they're getting gamed hand-over-fist.
The report says just twelve countries (the USA, Germany, Canada, China, Brazil, France, Mexico, India, the UK, Spain and Australia) account for 90 per cent of US multinationals' “missing” profits.
Those profits get processed through various implementations of the “Irish-Dutch sandwich” to be booked in low-tax countries like the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Bermuda.
If the numbers are accurate (the report's authors put a number of caveats on the data), then between $500 and $700 billion gets shuffled around in this way, which is how Bermuda found itself home to $80 billion worth of profits in 2012 (its GDP in the same year was a paltry $5.47 billion).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 12 2015, @03:25PM
"The answer is business creation"
The problem is, large corporations don't create jobs. In lean times, they get rid of jobs, and in fat times, they let small businesses and entrepreneurs take all the risk - then buy those out. Large corporations don't create jobs, or business.
Think back a couple decades. Who made home computers popular? It wasn't Ma Bell, AT&T, or even IBM. The little guys came up with the ideas, they built the prototypes, they proved the ideas, they borrowed money to start production, and they borrowed more money to advertise their wares. Some of those little people went on to become millionaires and billionaires, but they were the little people back then. Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs was just some weenie from a college town with big ideas that no sane CEO would consider backing.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 12 2015, @03:42PM
The problem is, large corporations don't create jobs.
If you have substantial business creation, it's not a problem. If you don't have enough business creation, then this problem doesn't stand out from all the other problems your society will have. I certainly would never consider it "the" problem no matter the circumstances.