Comment · Mon, July 23, 2012
Super rich hiding up to $32 trillion offshore, which amounts to roughly the US and Japanese GDP combined. Up to $280bn is lost in tax revenues. Some of the world's biggest banks are involved: HSBC, Citigroup, Bank of America, UBS, Credit Suisse
What they were answering
greatfool66 · 26 points
I think the whole companies leaving the country because of higher taxes argument is way overdone.
Global companies have independent subsidiaries in all their markets can't just move these enormous operations on a whim. Something like software engineering sure, you can move, but a lot of businesses involve resources that are not that portable. Also there is a very finite number of good countries for companies to be based in. Even a human capital based business like Microsoft is never going to move to the Bahamas no matter how advantageous the taxes are there. If all major countries could agree not to have race to the bottom tax policies like Ireland did then we could avoid these problems altogether.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
Uhh, many companies already have done this. Here is a quick list:
Bank of America, Boeing, Citigroup, Exxon/Mobile, GE, Google, Merck, News Corp, Verizon, Wells Fargo, Accenture.
They funnel profits through subsidies in many countries like the Caymans, The Netherlands, Ireland, Singapore, Bermuda, etc.