“Burning Our Bridges,” a new report from the Center for Effective Government and the Institute for Policy Studies, examines the infrastructure crisis in America. “All businesses — large and small — rely on our nation’s infrastructure for their success,” the report notes. “As President Barack Obama put it in this year’s State of the Union address, ‘21st century businesses need 21st century infrastructure — modern ports, stronger bridges, faster trains, and the fastest internet.’ To bring our infrastructure up to 21st century standards, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimated in 2013 that it would cost $3.6 trillion by 2020. Instead, Congress has slashed infrastructure spending to the lowest levels since the post-WWII era…
Unfortunately, President Obama and some members of Congress think the easiest way to fund infrastructure is by granting corporations a large tax cut on their untaxed offshore profits. In exchange for raising a smaller amount of tax revenue in the near term, all of these proposals forgive larger amounts of tax owed over the longer term.
Below, the report’s key findings. This post first appeared at Institute for Policy Studies.
Metro-North Railroad crews at work on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 repairing a damaged section of track after a derailment near the Spuyten-Duyvil station. (Photo: Patrick Cashin/ MTA/ flickr CC 2.0)
To generate funds to shore up our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, the US Congress is considering giving corporations large tax cuts on their offshore profits. Under current law, corporations can defer US tax payments on overseas earnings until they bring the profits to the United States. The proposed “tax holidays” would generate a relatively small, one-time revenue bump while allowing large corporations to avoid much larger amounts of tax owed over the longer term.
The last time we tried this, in 2004, it failed miserably. Corporations that participated shaved nearly $100 billion off their long-term IRS bills. And instead of boosting investment, they used the windfalls to buy back their stock and boost dividends while laying off more workers than they hired. Once the holiday was over, they began rebuilding their overseas profit stashes.
This report identifies the 26 US corporations with the largest stockpiles of untaxed overseas profits and analyzes how much these firms could help meet US infrastructure needs if they actually paid the taxes they owe — but can legally put off paying — on their offshore profits.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $3.6 trillion in infrastructure investment is needed by 2020 to bring our aging infrastructure into the 21st century and keep our economy competitive.
- Just 26 firms account for more than half of the $2.1 trillion in untaxed profits US corporations are currently holding offshore. Each of these firms has accumulated more than $20 billion in overseas earnings. Together, they operate 1,086 subsidiaries in tax haven nations.
- These 26 firms’ offshore profits have exploded more than five-fold since the last tax holiday on overseas earnings. Microsoft, Google, Apple and Qualcomm each grew their offshore stashes by more than twenty-fold between 2005 and 2014.
- If these 26 mega-stockpilers were to pay what they owe on their overseas profits, the federal government could gain a one-time revenue boost of an estimated $364 billion. That would be more than enough to cover the cost of repairing all of the country’s wastewater and stormwater systems, with enough left over to repair or replace all of the country’s dangerous and deficient dams and restore all the nation’s local, state and national parks.
- Apple is the largest offshore profit stockpiler. If the highly profitable tech firm were to pay what it owes on those earnings, it would be enough to cover 17 percent of the cost of needed repairs on all public school buildings.
- The second-largest offshore stockpiler is General Electric. If GE paid the taxes it owes on the $119 billion it holds offshore, that estimated revenue would be more than enough to pay for all of the unmet maintenance needs in local, state and national parks.
- Seven pharmaceutical firms are among the 26 mega-stockpilers. This sector has become adept at avoiding US taxes by shifting ownership of patents and trademarks to subsidiaries in tax havens. If these seven drug companies were to pay the taxes they owe, it would generate an estimated $82 billion, enough to replace all of the deficient bridges in the United States.
- If just two major oil companies — ExxonMobil and Chevron — were to pay the taxes they owe on their offshore profits, it could cover nearly a quarter of the cost of repairing all of the country’s levees. This is infrastructure critical for responding to the more volatile and extreme weather we are now experiencing.
- Closing the offshore tax dodging loophole for all corporations could raise at least $590 billion over the next decade, and $90 billion more every year thereafter. This would represent a significant down payment on the nation’s overall infrastructure investment needs and could create an additional 1.8 million jobs.
