Daily Archives: July 13, 2017

Latest Articles

The move follows a similar deal that Apple struck with Rome in late 2015, and comes as Europe wrestles with how much tax Silicon Valley companies should pay overseas.

By MARK SCOTT

There is wide accord that the current system encourages companies to keep money abroad. The question is how to tax funds brought home, now and in the future.

By PATRICIA COHEN

An inquiry by the New York attorney general found that from 2004 to 2009, Harbert paid no state taxes on profits generated by the hedge fund then managed by Philip Falcone.

By MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN

Greedy rulers around the world steal billions, disguise it and stash it in the West.

By OLIVER BULLOUGH

The trial announcement came after reports that UBS had rejected a settlement in the investigation about whether it helped French clients evade taxes.

By CHAD BRAY

The report outlines a strategy for bringing home billions of dollars from offshore affiliates while avoiding federal income taxes on the earnings.

By JESSE DRUCKER

Both political parties have good reasons to favor this policy.

By ALAN AUERBACH and MICHAEL DEVEREUX

Caterpillar has been dogged by accusations that it reduced its domestic tax bill by shifting profits from the United States to a subsidiary in Switzerland.

By HIROKO TABUCHI

Corporate boards and executives are likely to use much of the cash to acquire businesses in the United States, to buy back their own stock or to pay down debt.

By LESLIE PICKER

Trumps plan to give Americas biggest companies a huge tax break will enrich shareholders and executives without helping working families.

By FRANK CLEMENTE

A prison sentence for Jrme Cahuzac is an embarrassment for the troubled administration of President Franois Hollande, who has said he will not run for re-election.

By BENOT MORENNE

The president named a panel to recommend how to make Panamas financial sector more transparent, but that effort did not work out as planned.

By WALT BOGDANICH, ANA GRACIELA MNDEZ and JACQUELINE WILLIAMS

When a wealthy businessman set out to divorce his wife, their fortune vanished. The quest to find it would reveal the depths of an offshore financial system bigger than the U.S. economy.

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Consensus emerges among politicians, including both presidential candidates, that companies foreign profits should be brought back to America. But how?

By JEFF SOMMER

Americans for Tax Fairness writes that they are the multinational companies, especially in the high-tech and pharmaceutical industries.

It has so many loopholes that many companies end up paying relatively little.

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Its time to stop companies like Amazon, Boeing and Coca-Cola from damaging the economy by legally shirking taxes.

By DAVID LEONHARDT

A new study shows how Fortune 500 companies have managed to shelter trillions of dollars in profits offshore from being taxed, leaving Mr. Trump in the dust.

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

The Securities and Exchange Commission accused Sam Wyly and his brother in 2010 of hiding trades in companies they controlled using offshore trusts.

By REUTERS

With countries cracking down on elaborate tax schemes, companies need to be more forthright with their own investors.

By MORRIS PEARL

The move follows a similar deal that Apple struck with Rome in late 2015, and comes as Europe wrestles with how much tax Silicon Valley companies should pay overseas.

By MARK SCOTT

There is wide accord that the current system encourages companies to keep money abroad. The question is how to tax funds brought home, now and in the future.

By PATRICIA COHEN

An inquiry by the New York attorney general found that from 2004 to 2009, Harbert paid no state taxes on profits generated by the hedge fund then managed by Philip Falcone.

By MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN

Greedy rulers around the world steal billions, disguise it and stash it in the West.

By OLIVER BULLOUGH

The trial announcement came after reports that UBS had rejected a settlement in the investigation about whether it helped French clients evade taxes.

By CHAD BRAY

The report outlines a strategy for bringing home billions of dollars from offshore affiliates while avoiding federal income taxes on the earnings.

By JESSE DRUCKER

Both political parties have good reasons to favor this policy.

By ALAN AUERBACH and MICHAEL DEVEREUX

Caterpillar has been dogged by accusations that it reduced its domestic tax bill by shifting profits from the United States to a subsidiary in Switzerland.

By HIROKO TABUCHI

Corporate boards and executives are likely to use much of the cash to acquire businesses in the United States, to buy back their own stock or to pay down debt.

By LESLIE PICKER

Trumps plan to give Americas biggest companies a huge tax break will enrich shareholders and executives without helping working families.

By FRANK CLEMENTE

A prison sentence for Jrme Cahuzac is an embarrassment for the troubled administration of President Franois Hollande, who has said he will not run for re-election.

By BENOT MORENNE

The president named a panel to recommend how to make Panamas financial sector more transparent, but that effort did not work out as planned.

By WALT BOGDANICH, ANA GRACIELA MNDEZ and JACQUELINE WILLIAMS

When a wealthy businessman set out to divorce his wife, their fortune vanished. The quest to find it would reveal the depths of an offshore financial system bigger than the U.S. economy.

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Consensus emerges among politicians, including both presidential candidates, that companies foreign profits should be brought back to America. But how?

By JEFF SOMMER

Americans for Tax Fairness writes that they are the multinational companies, especially in the high-tech and pharmaceutical industries.

It has so many loopholes that many companies end up paying relatively little.

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Its time to stop companies like Amazon, Boeing and Coca-Cola from damaging the economy by legally shirking taxes.

By DAVID LEONHARDT

A new study shows how Fortune 500 companies have managed to shelter trillions of dollars in profits offshore from being taxed, leaving Mr. Trump in the dust.

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

The Securities and Exchange Commission accused Sam Wyly and his brother in 2010 of hiding trades in companies they controlled using offshore trusts.

By REUTERS

With countries cracking down on elaborate tax schemes, companies need to be more forthright with their own investors.

By MORRIS PEARL

Read more here:

Offshore Banking - The New York Times

The Federal Government just spent three years painstakingly assessing the nations offshore drilling policies, following the dictates of the law governing management of our public coastal waters. The previous administration conducted a thorough analysis of the benefits and risks, while receiving extensive input from industry, potentially impacted communities and businesses, and the public at large. That process revealed a massive groundswell of public opposition to expanded drilling off our coasts, as well as significant scientific and economic data showing that opening drilling into frontier areas is not in the public interest.

And yet, just a few months later, President Trumps Interior Department (DOI) is looking to scrap that plan and start again. On July 3rd, the Department of the Interior at the behest of oil and gas companiesissued a Request for Information on offshore oil and gas leasing, initiating a redundant, multi-year process to expand drilling off our coasts.

The Department of the Interior evaluated drilling in the Arctics Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, as well the Atlantic Ocean when it began the process several years ago, and ultimately determined it was a bad call. The Arctic is pristinetheres never been oil production in its federal offshore waters despite an expensive and catastrophic attempt at exploration by the oil major Shell in 2012. It supports iconic wildlife, including polar bears, whales, and all sorts of seal species, which, in turn, support the subsistence lifestyle of the northernmost Alaskan Native tribes. Similarly, the Atlantic Ocean has been off the table for drilling for more than 30 years, supports incredibly rich marine ecosystems, and is a primary economic driver for hundreds of communities up and down the coast. All of this would be at risk of devastation if those oceans were drilled and oil were to spill. As leaders of the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling wrote last week in the New York Times, drilling in the outer continental shelf remains risky business.

DOI ultimately removed Arctic and Atlantic lease sales from consideration in part thanks to overwhelming public opposition and instead President Obama opted to permanently protect the vast majority of the Arctic and 31 Atlantic deep sea canyons from all future drilling. Removing these areas reflected the publics preference for preservation over exploitation with Americans submitting more than 1.4 million comments opposing drilling; their elected representatives repeatedly calling on President Obama to protect their coasts; businesses and municipalities declaring their opposition to drilling and seismic testing; and a host of environmental, Latino, conservation,faith-based leaders, and veterans organizations urging the President to steer our offshore energy policy forward.

This recent history is repeating itself, and then some.

Communities immediately rallied upon the release of Trumps executive order to expand offshore oil and gas production; they came together again around the annual Hands Across the Sand event; and Members of Congress and Senators have introduced a number of bills to prevent drilling off their coasts. Bipartisan opposition is growing, and Governors are weighing in strongly as well. These coastal leaders are taking a stand and protecting their communities economies and way of life:

Similarly, editorial boards up and down the Atlantic coast have taken firm stances against expanded drilling. These are just a few examples:

The engagement of leaders across the political spectrum, and the editorial boards that reflect their communities voices, is strong evidence that attempts to open our coasts will be met with a fight. The communities, people and businesses that rely on healthy coasts will defend their way of life against the federal governments shameful readiness to put oil industry profits over people yet again.

Senior Advocate, Oceans Program

Director, Beyond Oil Initiative

See the article here:

Opposition to Offshore Drilling Comes in Bipartisan Wave | NRDC - Natural Resources Defense Council

A Trump administration proposal to continue allowing oil companies to dump unlimited amounts of offshore fracking chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico violates federal law and threatens imperiled marine wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity warned this week.

In a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Region 6 office on its proposed wastewater-discharge permit for offshore oil and gas drilling activities off the coasts of Louisiana, Texas and Mississippiwhere thousands of offshore drilling platforms are locatedthe Center for Biological Diversity explained that the proposed permit violates the Clean Water Act because it causes an undue degradation of the marine environment. The Center for Biological Diversity's letter notes that "scientific research has indicated that 40 percent of the chemicals used in fracking can harm aquatic animals and other wildlife."

"The Trump administration is letting the oil industry dump unlimited amounts of toxic fracking chemicals into these wildlife-rich waters," said Center for Biological Diversity attorney Kristen Monsell. "The EPA is supposed to protect ocean water quality, not turn a blind eye as oil companies use the Gulf as a garbage dump for fracking waste."

Earlier this year the EPA's Region 6 office responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Center for Biological Diversity for records analyzing the effects of fracking chemicals on Gulf water quality and marine life. Officials said they didn't have any responsive records, meaning the agency has been allowing the oil industry to dump its fracking wastewater into the Gulf without studying its environmental impacts, as federal law requires.

Federal waters off Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi host the largest concentration of offshore oil and gas drilling activities in the country. Previous records requests revealed that oil companies dumped more than 75 billion gallons of wastewater into these waters in 2014 alone.

At least 10 fracking chemicals routinely used in offshore fracking could kill or harm a broad variety of marine species, including marine mammals and fish, Center for Biological Diversity scientists have found. The California Council on Science and Technology has identified some common fracking chemicals to be among the most toxic in the world to marine animals.

Fracking chemicals raise grave ecological concerns because the Gulf of Mexico is important habitat for whales, sea turtles and fish and contains critical habitat for imperiled loggerhead sea turtles. Dolphins and other species in the Gulf are still suffering lingering effects from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

"It's the EPA's job to safeguard our oceans from being contaminated with fracking wastewater," Monsell said. "The agency has no business rubber-stamping the dumping of dangerous, disgusting chemicals without even trying to understand the risks."

Go here to see the original:

Stop Dumping Offshore Fracking Waste Into Gulf of Mexico - EcoWatch