Guess who's not paying their taxes?

The following index ran in this week's Facing South e-newsletter. If you're not receiving that yet but would like to, please fill out the "Newsletter" form on the upper-right side of this page. (We won't share your e-mail address with anyone.) To go to the original sources, click on the hot-linked figures.

Estimated value of assets the IRS believes to be held in offshore tax havens, countries with nominal taxes and minimal reporting requirements: $5 trillion

Number of countries that aggressively market themselves as tax havens: at least 40

Percent of the biggest U.S. corporations that utilize tax havens: 80

Number of U.S. companies that maintain post office boxes in one 5-story building in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven: over 18,000

Number of tax havens used by Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America: 115

Number of Bank of America tax havens in the Cayman Islands: 59

Estimated annual cost of offshore tax havens to U.S. taxpayers: $100 billion

Estimated annual cost of offshore tax havens to U.S. taxpayers in the 13 Southern states*: $28,712,758,673

Estimated annual cost of offshore tax havens to U.S. taxpayers in Texas alone: $8,653,820,259

Number of people working in Iraq for Houston-based KBR who were listed as employees of two shell companies that exist only as computer files in a Cayman Islands office: 21,000

Under the arrangement, which KBR admits it created to avoid payroll taxes, amount in unemployment assistance those employees are entitled to collect should they lose their jobs: $0

Proportion of U.S. corporations that paid no income taxes between 1998 and 2005, due largely to the use of offshore tax havens and other tax dodges: 2/3

Estimated amount of money that would be generated for the Treasury if the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act were approved by Congress: $100 billion

* AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV

http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/04/guess-whos-not-paying-their-taxes.html

Well, gosh. If only we had someone to advocate that those companies get bigger tax breaks so they wouldn't have to work so hard hiding money that they wouldn't pay to the government anyway.

So much for the conservative spin doctors claims that the wealthiest 1% of Americans pay the majority of taxes. One word comes to mind.....

Revolution.

Ratzilla wrote:

Revolution.

Don't worry Bighead, I'm sure your socialist in chief would quickly label revolutionaries terrorists and use the military to stop it.

Yep, that's exactly what would happen. And I'd feel depressed and just shake my head at the stupidity of it all.

But what I was really rolling my eyes at is the call to revolution that I see on every goddamn website that I come across. Some want to revolt against the democrats... others against the republicans... some against the socialists... others against the wealthy.

There are some obvious problems with this:

1. You'll NEVER get a majority of Americans to agree to a revolution in any particular direction. Hell, we can barely muster a majority to elect a president.

2. The U.S. military has more way to kill people than death itself. You can't beat it. The BEST you can hope for is a drawn-out, bloody, protracted civil war (a.k.a. "insurgency"). No thanks.

3. Even if your revolutionaries manage to pull a miracle outta your ass... I have no reason to believe that the government ya'll come up with will be any more to my liking than the one we have now.

It always has been a goal of ours to set up a government to your liking. The heck with anybody else.

Bighead wrote:

Even if your revolutionaries manage to pull a miracle outta your ass... I have no reason to believe that the government ya'll come up with will be any more to my liking than the one we have now.

(makes note) If revolution begins, shoot Bighead so he won't have to worry.

You'll have to be quicker than I am.

Bighead wrote:

You'll have to be quicker than I am.

Says the person with a buddhist (i.e. pacifist) signature.

BigBadBeast wrote:

Bighead wrote:

You'll have to be quicker than I am.

Says the person with a buddhist (i.e. pacifist) signature.

He ain't foolin anyone. He can't possibly beat a 308 no matter how fast he's running.

Might not have to outrun it.