Scale of Tax Avoidance
The US Public Interest Research Group said in 2014 that the United States loses roughly $184 billion per year due to corporations such as Pfizer, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Citigroup using offshore tax havens to avoid paying US taxes. In 2010-2012 Pfizer paid no US income taxes despite earning $43 billion. Microsoft held $76.4 billion overseas in 2013, thus saving the corporation $24.4 billion in taxes.
The Australian Federal Government has created a special task force to police the cash economy, which is worth an estimated $21 billion a year or 1.5 percent of gross domestic product. To counter the ‘the black economy’ the task force is considering banning cash payments over AU$100 (copying the regulations introduced by the French Government in 2013).
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"You’d be stupid not to try to cut your tax bill and those that don’t are stupid in business"
- Bono: U2