His retirement can’t come soon enough.
Caterpillar Inc defended itself on Tuesday against accusations of offshore tax-dodging, telling a U.S. Senate panel that a low-tax unit the company set up years ago in Switzerland has not been challenged by U.S. tax authorities.
Executives from the world’s largest maker of mining and construction equipment were hauled in front of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to answer to allegations made by the panel in a 99-page report.
Released on Monday, it said Caterpillar avoided paying $2.4 billion in U.S. taxes from 2000 through 2012 by moving profits from sales of replacement parts through the Swiss unit, a strategy sharply criticized by the panel’s chairman.
Democratic Senator Carl Levin said the Swiss arrangement had no business purpose other than to dodge taxes. “The documents couldn’t be clearer, it’s a tax deal,” Levin said at the hearing, the latest in a series on corporate tax avoidance.
Caterpillar executives said its tax strategies, related to a complex corporate restructuring that began in 1999, were legal and in the best interest of its shareholders.
Longtime Democrat (and many big government Republican) legislators like Levin will always be mad if you move your head away from the gun they’re pointing at you during the stickup. It is no big secret that lefties are resentful of any person or company that is successful in the private sector and believe that success should be punished.
The Dream World of Levin and his ilk doesn’t have any place for hard working people and corporations to legally protect their own money. Give them enough time working with the UN and they’ll get that.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member