US firms hiding $1.4 trillion in offshore tax havens: Oxfam

Oxfam has slammed US corporate giants, such as Apple, General Electric, and Microsoft, which have hidden nearly $1.4 trillion in dozens of offshore tax havens.

Oxfam America, which is the US arm of the global anti-poverty organization Oxfam, said in a new report on Thursday that 50 top American companies are denying the US administration, and other governments much needed tax income.

The report said the funds stashed by the corporations offshore between 2008 and 2014 show the extent to which tax havens allow firms to avoid taxes.

The companies also used more than 1,600 subsidiaries in tax havens to hoard and move money around outside the reach of fiscal authorities, the report pointed out.

At the same time, the corporations keep on taking benefits from government support in their home countries, but taxpayers are bearing the cost, it added.

The report was released nearly two weeks after the leak of confidential documents from a Panamanian law firm which showed how the firm had created thousands of anonymous shell companies in countries where they can be used to avoid taxes.

US corporations dodging billions in taxes

"Multinational corporations that benefit from trillions in taxpayer-funded support are dodging billions in taxes," said Oxfam American President Raymond Offenheiser in a statement.

"The vast sums large companies stash in tax havens should be fighting poverty and rebuilding America's infrastructure, not hidden offshore in Panama, Bahamas, or the Cayman Islands," Offenheiser added.

The report pointed out the huge profits that major corporations have reported they are holding offshore, partly because of the high taxes they say they would have to pay for shifting the profits back to the US.

For instance, General Electric has $119 billion, Microsoft $108 billion, Pfizer $74 billion, and Google parent Alphabet $47 billion.

"When corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes, governments -- rich and poor -- are forced to cut services or make up the shortfall from working families and small businesses. Neither is acceptable," Offenheiser said.

Panama Papers 

On April 3, Süddeutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), said it had received a cache of 11.5 million leaked documents from the internal database of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, and shared them with more than 100 other international news outlets as well as with the ICIJ. 

The leaked files exposed the secret offshore dealings of Chinese President Xi Jinping's relatives, some world leaders, and many sport and cinema celebrities.

They also included papers allegedly showing a suspected money-laundering ring run by Russian President Vladimir Putin's close allies. Putin has rejected the allegations, calling them a US-backed "provocation"

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