The Daily Graphic: Huge U.S. Companies and How Much Profit They’re Not Paying Taxes On
Read more about the graphic below and offshore tax havens at the New York Times.
Transcript: Obama Remarks on Reforming Tax Code – Offshore Tax Havens
(Source: White House Press Office)
THE PRESIDENT: All right. Good morning, everybody. Hope you all had a good weekend.
Let’s begin with a simple premise: Nobody likes paying taxes, particularly in times of economic stress. But most Americans meet their responsibilities because they understand that it’s an obligation of citizenship, necessary to pay the costs of our common defense and our mutual well-being.
And yet, even as most American citizens and businesses meet these responsibilities, there are others who are shirking theirs. And many are aided and abetted by a broken tax system, written by well-connected lobbyists on behalf of well-heeled interests and individuals. It’s a tax code full of corporate loopholes that makes it perfectly legal for companies to avoid paying their fair share. It’s a tax code that makes it all too easy for a number — a small number of individuals and companies to abuse overseas tax havens to avoid paying any taxes at all. And it’s a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York.
