If Illinois small business owners were to collectively offset state and federal revenues lost annually due to corporations using offshore tax havens, they would each have to pay $4,570 in additional taxes a year.
That what-if scenario is laid out in a recent report from the Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) examining the issue of "corporate tax haven abuse" and what it means for small businesses.
Through the use of accounting "gimmicks" to shift profits offshore, corporations avoid paying $110 billion annually in federal and state income taxes combined, according to Illinois PIRG's "Picking up the Tab" report. Specifically, about $90 billion in federal and $20 billion in state corporate income tax revenue is lost each year to tax havens, the research reveals.
On Wednesday, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), unveiled the text of a bill that looks to prevent tax dodges by companies that use inversions.
As U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin declared victory Wednesday for Walgreen Co.'s decision to keep its headquarters in Illinois, Republican businessman Jim Oberweis accused him of "bullying," saying the Senate's second-ranking Democrat deserved scorn — not praise — for his efforts.
Aiming to sidestep a logjam in Congress, the Obama administration is looking for steps it could take on its own to prevent American companies from reincorporating overseas to shirk U.S. taxes, officials said Tuesday.
Walgreen's top financial officer is leaving the largest U.S. drugstore chain as it nears a key decision about its future that could involve a politically touchy overseas reorganization.
The practice of U.S. corporations reorganizing with foreign entities overseas to reduce taxes back home has emerged as an issue in Illinois' gubernatorial race, with Gov. Pat Quinn strongly condemning the growing trend as "unpatriotic" on Wednesday and questioning his Republican challenger's stance on the issue.
Tax fairness activists delivered 70,000 petition signatures to a downtown Chicago Walgreens store Thursday, calling on the nation’s largest pharmacy chain to remain a U.S company and pay its "fair share of taxes."
It is rumored that Deerfield-based Walgreen Co. is considering plans to reincorporate itself offshore in Switzerland, a "tax haven," through a maneuver called a corporate tax inversion. Such a move could reportedly cost U.S. taxpayers $4 billion in lost tax revenue over a five-year period.