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Today Citizens for Tax Justice and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund released, “Offshore Shell Games,” a new study which found that nearly three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies maintained at least one tax haven subsidiary in 2014, with just 30 companies accounting for 62 percent of earnings stashed offshore.
All told, Fortune 500 companies collectively maintain 7,622 tax haven subsidiaries and hold $2.1 trillion offshore, avoiding up to $620 billion in U.S. taxes.
The new CTJ/PIRG study examines which companies operate subsidiaries in tax haven jurisdictions, the amount they have booked offshore, and the federal taxes they would owe if they paid the full federal corporate tax rate on their profits. While most very large companies book some profits offshore, a smaller subset–particularly those in the high tech, pharmaceutical and financial industries–are most aggressive about using tax havens to avoid taxes. This rampant tax avoidance cost about $90 billion every year in lost federal tax revenue.
Read the full study and learn about the most egregious offenders here.