If paying taxes were optional, most people would choose not to pay. Especially, if one could save millions of dollars. Most people also know that in doing so they would have to face stiff consequences including heavy fines and possible jail time. Several American multinational corporations have found a way to decrease and in some cases eliminate their taxes without the stiff penalties. .
These corporations do so by taking advantage of overseas tax havens. To use a tax haven, a company will move the address of its headquarters to a country, like Barbados, where it can save a lot of money by avoiding payment of American taxes. The companies then shift their profits from the United States to the low-tax or tax-free country by making interest, royalty and other miscellaneous expense payments to it. Eventually all of the taxable income becomes tax deductible.
One of the most recent and widely publicized companies to do this has been Stanley Works. They moved their legal headquarters from Connecticut to Bermuda, but still run their company from the United States. By their estimates they will save approximately 25-32 million dollars in taxes by becoming a Bermuda based company, even though their foreign tax bill for last year was $7 million dollars. This means that some of their savings will come at the expense of not paying American taxes.
American multinationals state they need to take full advantage of tax havens in order to stay competitive. Stanley argues that a more competitive company will be better for the U.S. economy even if tax evasion is the cost. The result will be the preservation of U.S. jobs and a strong stock market.
Besides overlooking alternative solutions for creating a more competitive company, like a million-dollar pay cut for top executives (in 2000, the CEO made $3.4 million/yr.), the unfairness of companies not paying taxes is being brushed off. These companies want to be considered American and traded on the S & P.
Evasion, theft, education, and underground publications are successful methods Bauer says the Jews fought against the Nazis without the use of arms. ... Hilberg's definition, on the other hand, claims reaction can take place "five ways: by resistance, by an attempt to alleviate or nullify the threat, by evasion, by paralysis, or by compliance" (Hilberg 662). ...
