Lowering the lowest common denominator- U.S. multinationals

Report: U.S. companies shifting more profits to tax havens - chicagotribune.com: "mong the findings: American multinational companies reported 43 percent of their overseas profits in the tax havens studied -- Bermuda, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland -- in 2008, the most recent year data were available.

These same companies hired only 4 percent of their foreign workforce and made just 7 percent of their foreign investments in these same countries.

"By all indicators examined in this report, profit shifting has generally trended upward over time," the report, dated Jan. 18 said.

The analysis found this trend increasing since 1999.

CRS, a nonpartisan research arm of Congress used by lawmakers, analyzed data compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a unit of the Commerce Department that collects economic data from non-financial companies with foreign affiliates."

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