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Keywords For the Corporate Bastards: Aristocracy, Corporate Interests,
Greed, Tax Evasion, Un-American
BACKGROUND:
Corporate
Bastards is somewhat of a misnomer in this context. A more accurate heading
would be "Greedy, Despicable, Power-hungry, White-Collar Fraudsters" It
boils down to anyone who screws society for their self-enrichment.
AMMO
(Corporate interests,
Tax Evasion)
FACT:
A recent study by two finance professors at Florida International University
showed that multinational corporations managed to avoid paying $45 billion
in U.S. taxes last year by overpricing goods sold to foreign affiliates,
and underpricing goods bought from those same affiliates. Selling toothbrushes
for $5,655 and buying bulldozers for $528 were typical.
COMMENT:
These are the same companies to which Bush's corporate welfare program
has been distributing billions of our tax dollars. They are the companies
that search for offshore tax shelter in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
They are the Airlines that hire the "lowest bidders" to protect us from
terrorism and they are the Energy companies that inflate prices and steal
employees' pensions (Enron).
(Greed, Corporate
Interests, Aristocracy, Un-American)
FACT:
An article in the New York Times makes note of the latest trend in legalized
tax-dodging - incorporating in Bermuda. The best part of the deal is that
corporations get to drastically reduce their tax burden while still being
able to perform business in the United States. According to the Times,
"by moving to Bermuda, their income from outside the United States becomes
exempt from American taxes. Also, when the American company borrows from
its Bermuda parent, the interest it pays creates a deduction that reduces
U.S. taxes, but there is no tax on the interest earned by the Bermuda parent."
COMMENT:
Post 9/11, Patriotism has become a big issue. The Bush administration publicly
cries foul when someone isn't wrapping themselves in the flag or (God forbid)
questioning the motives of the administration even though everything they
do is "in the name of national security" (you know, overturning Roe v.
Wade, corporate welfare and tax cuts to the rich. The usual.) In the mean
time we are learning that "patriotism" doesn't apply to Bush's buddies
and/or corporate pocket-pumpers. Indeed, the ever-so-patriotic Kate Barton,
an Ernst & Young tax partner, had this to say on the subject of patriotism:
"Is it the right time to be migrating a corporation's headquarters to an
offshore location? ... we are working through a lot of companies who feel
that it is, that just the improvement on earnings is powerful enough that
maybe the patriotism issue needs to take a back seat to that."
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