The Fortune 500 companies store $2.1 trillion in tax havens

Oct 6, 2015 15:09 GMT  ·  By

According to the "Offshore Shell Games 2015" study by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) non-profit research and advocacy group, all the companies in the Fortune 500 list put together keep more than $2.1 trillion of profits in tax havens like the Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Mauritius or the British virgin Islands, to avoid paying the taxes after repatriating the funds to the U.S.

CTJ's study also says that at least three-quarters of all Fortune 500 businesses have subsidiaries within one or more tax haven countries, with some companies like KKR operating up to 258 subsidiaries in multiple tax havens.

As the study states, "At least 358 companies, nearly 72 percent of the Fortune 500, operate subsidiaries in tax haven jurisdictions as of the end of 2014. All told these 358 companies maintain at least 7,622 tax haven subsidiaries."

Apple is the Fortune 500 company with the biggest share of profits kept in offshore tax havens and the highest potential tax check

Out of all the companies that operate their own tax haven subsidiaries to keep their profits out of U.S., Apple's $181.1 billion in profits that have never touched American soil is the largest portion.

As estimated in the study, if Apple decided to bring their offshore profits back to the U.S. tomorrow, they would have to pay up to $59.2 billion in taxes. Moreover, given these figures, Apple has paid a meager 2.3% tax rate on all its profits kept offshore.

Out of all Fortune 500 companies that use this technique to avoid paying the U.S. corporate tax of 35 percent, only 57 publicly disclosed how much they would have to shell out once their offshore profits would be brought back to the U.S.

"The 57 companies that do publicly disclose the tax calculations report that they would owe $184.4 billion in additional federal taxes, a tax rate of 29 percent," says the CTJ study.

Fortune 500 tax havens (2 Images)

Top 30 companies with the most money held offshore
Percent of Fortune 500 companies with 2014 Subsidiaries in 20 top tax havens
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