Big biz finally ADMITS use of extreme tax-avoidance techniques
It took awhile, but a big Wisconsin-based corporation eventually confessed to its tax-avoidance schemes. It started when a tax fairness think tank disclosed that the big biz paid no state income tax in 2000-2008. [IWF]
From the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future “Who Does Not Pay Taxes”:
It took awhile, but SC Johnson (SCJ) eventually fessed up to its tax-avoidance schemes.
It started when the last issue of this publication disclosed that SCJ paid no state income tax in 2000-2008. This prompted an SCJ insider to release a secret tax-avoidance report prepared for the firm in 2006 by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The report went anonymously to the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future and to David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning tax columnist for Reuters global news service.
The PwC report noted that SCJ offset its Wisconsin profits by deducting the interest paid on a multi-hundred-million-dollar loan it took from its own Puerto Rican subsidiary.
Similarly, in April the education arm of One Wisconsin Now, the One Wisconsin Institute, issued the report, “We’re Not Broke: The Truth About the Wisconsin Budget, Taxes And Governor Scott Walker’s Phony Fiscal Crisis” in which the claim was made that two-thirds of Wisconsin’s corporations don’t pay taxes. It may be tough to believe, but it’s absolutely true. Even the often-irrelavant reporting of Politifact-Wisconsin rated the statistic True.