2 ms·
"Investigate Europe can reveal that the 15 largest European and US drugmakers, including BMS, publicly disclose over 1,300 subsidiaries in tax havens and low-ta
by jll29 2y ago
"Investigate Europe can reveal that the 15 largest European and US drugmakers, including BMS, publicly disclose over 1,300 subsidiaries in tax havens and low-tax territories. These jurisdictions offer corporations low taxes or ways to shift profits (sometimes both). In Europe, researchers and activists generally agree that they include Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg."
The nasty secret is called "transfer pricing", which is permissible under OECD rules, which permits companies to claim their headquarters are whereever they want (so they choose a low tax jurisdiction), when everybody knows that their "real headquarter" is not there (including their own Website, which names an entirely different place as their HQ). One such loophole the "Double Dutch-Irish Sandwich" was closed two years ago, but plenty of other ways remain.
It is a bit unfair to "Big Pharma" (or Apple) to single them out, because lots of other corporations do the same. For example, just check the Canton Zug (CH)'s ratio between companies registered there (29k?) and people living there (25k?).
I have not seen a single political party offering in their manifesto to fix this... meanwhile large corporates create shell companies owned by other shell companies licensing brands to third shell companies while receiving loans from fourth parties etc. etc. - typical money laundering patterns like organized crime, yet entirely legal at the moment.
In my opinion, everyone who is a Director of >50 companies should be investigated for fraud to begin with, and rules for determining companies' true headquarter should be changed so they cannot be freely chosen "only for tax purposes".
- doikor 2y agoThere is some interest in trying to fix this. Mainly with a global minimum corporate tax rate in the OECD as this can’t really be fixed by individual countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_minimum_corporate_tax_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_minimum_corporate_tax_r... Though remains to be seen when it will actually go fully into effect and when/if all the various loop holes will be closed.
- kwhitefoot 2y ago> this can’t really be fixed by individual countries. This can't be fixed by most individual countries but there are a few individual countries that could do it. The US could easily do it, easily from a technical point of view that is; unfortunately it is politically impossible.