Nobody likes paying taxes. It’s really just that simple. Even in biblical times Jesus had some issues with tax collectors, to say the least. But as a civilized, modern society, paying taxes are a necessity. Ideally tax money is used to pay for our education system, maintaining our infrastructure, healthcare, and a variety of other programs that are for the common good. That doesn’t mean people try really hard to avoid paying taxes. It’s one thing working as a busboy that gets paid cash under the table, but it’s an entirely different scenario when you avoid paying millions, if not billions in taxes each year. By nature, if you are a wealthy individual, you’re going to have to pay even more taxes. This is especially true if you are a multi-billion dollar corporation. Given that these companies have so much money, they can afford to go to great lengths to pay as little or no taxes at all.
The main way that these organizations go about doing this is through tax havens. These nations that are considered tax havens are countries where taxes are extremely low, or non existent at all. An example of a few prominent tax havens would be Switzerland, Ireland, Bermuda, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands. Many companies and organizations in the United States have bank accounts within these countries where they store massive amounts of money. According to a report from Bloomberg, U.S. companies are hiding away some $2.1 trillion dollars overseas to avoid paying taxes. That’s certainly a lot of money, but out of all the companies in the United States, which ones store the most money in offshore accounts? Let’s take a look at five big companies that have over $60 billion dollars stored in offshore accounts, and these companies are the biggest offenders at using tax havens.
Photo by Daniel Aguilar/Getty Images
5. Apple – $69.7 Billion Stored in Offshore Accounts
The first big company that make our list is Cupertino-giant, Apple. Now Apple always likes to charge more for their products, which many people describe as the “Apple Tax”. Plain and simple, consumer goods from Apple cost more money than competitors. And this is coming from someone that owns a Macbook and an iPad. They’re currently one of, if not the most valuable company in the entire world, and they also like to store money in offshore accounts to avoid taxes. Apple has around $69.7 billion dollars stored in accounts in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands, and the Republic of Ireland. They reduce their taxed by sending profits to Ireland, then the Netherlands, and then finally to the Caribbean. They pioneered this tax method in the 1980’s which is now known as the “Double Irish with a Dutch sandwich” and were one of the first tech companies to use offshore accounts in order to pay fewer taxes.
Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images
4. Pfizer – $74 Billion in Offshore Accounts
The massive multination pharmaceutical company that’s based out of New York City, Pfizer, is another company that likes storing money overseas. Pfizer develops and sells a wide range of different healthcare related products, and are responsible for drugs like Lipitor, Zithromax, Viagra, Cerebra, and many others. On any given “good” year, they see billions of dollars in net income. So to avoid paying taxes, they have around $74 billion in offshore tax havens.
Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
3. Wal-Mart – $79 Billion Stored in Offshore Accounts
While the Walton family collectively sits on billions of dollars and are set for life, and while Wal-Mart is known for cutting costs by any means necessary (typically paying employees less), they also don’t like to pay taxes. It has recently came out, according to Bloomberg, that Wal-Mart has around $79 billion dollars spread across a variety of different bank accounts in tax havens. They have around 78 different offshore accounts and subsidiaries that hold their money (90% of which are in the Netherlands and Luxembourg), and this has helped them save around $3.5 billion in income taxes alone.
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
2. Microsoft – $92.9 Billion Stored in Offshore Accounts
Microsoft comes in at the number two spot on our list as one of the leading American companies that stores billions in offshore accounts. Even though Apple is the more profitable company of the two tech-giants, Microsoft stores even more money in offshore accounts; around $92.9 billion dollars in total. Actually when you combine the money in Microsoft’s, Apple’s, and Google’s offshore accounts, they account for about 1/5th of that total $2.1 trillion dollars that are stored in offshore accounts.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
1. General Electric – $119 Billion Stored in Offshore Accounts
Finally we reach the number one American company that has the most amount of money stored in tax havens: General Electric. Actually, General Electric has held down this title for the past five years, and they show now signs of bringing that money home. From 2010 to now, G.E. has increased the money stored in offshore accounts by about 27%. While most people are familiar with G.E. producing appliances, they have their hands in the aviation, healthcare, transportation, water, and oil and gas industries. They are such a massive conglomerate that sees hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue each year, yet they are still the biggest American company that likes to pay as little taxes as legally possible.
Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Source for data: Bloomberg
