US firms have US$1.6t in tax havens: Oxfam

Washington

THE 50 largest US companies, including Apple, Microsoft and Wal-Mart, are parking about US$1.6 trillion in offshore tax havens to reduce their US tax burden, according to a study published on Wednesday.

Poverty-fighting organization Oxfam America said the sum for 2015 was a US$200 billion increase over the prior year. The report cites the companies' own data.

While not illegal, the companies "used a secretive network of 1,751 subsidiaries in tax havens to stash" their earnings outside the US…