Senate investigators accuse engine-maker Caterpillar of hiding $8 billion in Swiss tax havens

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/01/senate-investigators-accuse-engine-maker-caterpillar-of-hiding-8-billion-in-swiss-tax-havens/



Senate investigators accuse engine-maker Caterpillar of hiding $8 billion in Swiss tax havens
By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 16:37 EDT

U.S. Senate investigators have accused heavy equipment giant Caterpillar of hiding $8 billion in profits offshore in Switzerland to avoid U.S. taxes.

In a report released late Monday, investigators said the company took advantage of a special corporate tax deal negotiated with Swiss authorities that allowed it to defer or avoid paying $2.4 billion in US taxes.

The report, released by Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the company instead only had to pay Swiss authorities $55 million under the strategy.

“That tax strategy depends on the company making the case that its parts business is run out of Switzerland instead of the U.S. so it can justify sending 85 percent or more of the parts profits to Geneva,” Levin said in a statement.


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IIRC, Caterpillar was part of the group that was tasked to build our $1 million MRAPS for Iraq in the mid-2000s. After Iraq, many were moved to Afghanistan. Now that we are leaving Afghanistan, Uncle Sam is chopping them into scrap rather than shipping them elsewhere.

And Caterpillar ends up with $8 billion in a tax haven.