The Cost Of Offshore Expansion

Globalization is not necessarily a modern concept. The Romans globalized with extreme efficiency. Guess what, they taxed wherever they conquered.

Corporations and citizens in modern times have found schemes to avoid paying full taxes, if any at all. This has been happening since the mid 20th century. Tax havens are held at places around the world. Places like: Cayman Islands, Turks, and Caicos, just to name a few. Roughly 15% of countries in the world are tax havens.

An article in the Huffington Post  estimates that $100 billion a year of tax money is lost in tax havens around the world, which equals to about a trillion in a decade. The Huffington Post should be credited with high visible reporting.

What does this mean to average citizens in America? When corporations and oligarchies do not pay their fair share, middle and low income families will have increased tax rates. This is also unfair to small businesses that have no choice but to operate in the states. The nation’s financial stability will suffer, along with record breaking national deficits, which jeopardize the national security.

The IRS is well aware of the problem, but the complexities are hard to manage.

New legislation  has been introduced to “restrict the use of offshore tax havens and abusive tax shelters to inappropriately avoid Federal taxation”. President Obama has threatened to tackle the problem. But, the complicated networks, subsidiaries, and trust funds are structured so vast and complex.

Presidents in the past have tried to solve the problem, the opposition was monumental. As long as corporations control the government, there will not be a true democracy.

Don’t believe the hype and the rhetoric about change. Because that’s all it is. What has happened is what our forefathers fought against — corporate influence controlling government.