BREAKING NEWS — Palm Beach Billionaire David Koch, Brother Charles Named in Euro Tax Haven Scandal!
LUXEMBOURG — Palm Beach billionaire David Koch and his equally-loaded brother Charles got the government of Luxembourg to sign a secret, custom-made deal that allowed their companies to save hundreds of millions of dollars that otherwise would have been taxed in the United States.
On its website this morning, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists spells out the shell game played by subsidiaries of Koch Industries, the second largest private company in the United States, with the help of the tiny European country.
The latest documents, which were supposed to be kept secret, also include the financial hijinx of the Walt Disney Co.
The scandal first exploded in October when government files about secret arrangements with 340 companies worldwide were released. Those included Fedex, Skype, Pepsi and others.
Combined, it’s believed that the corporations should’ve paid billions to the IRS if the Duchy of Luxembourg had not signed off on the secret rulings negotiated by top accounting firms and guaranteeing the support of the country’s top leaders.
The deal created a firestorm in government circles here at home and abroad in a midst of a worldwide effort to clamp down on the games played by billionaires to hide assets.
The latest documents shows the extend of the coziness between the Kochs and a foreign government whose former prime minister now leads the European Commission — something that allowed some of the Kochs’ companies to enjoy a tax rate of less than 1 percent.
In a nutshell the Koch brothers, who spent billions funding the Tea Party and other extreme right anti-tax groups, restructured their companies and took 26 steps to avoid U.S. corporate taxes in this case.
According to the ICIJ: “One part of Koch’s 26-step plan involves a $736 million loan that is passed from company to company until the American branch of a Luxembourg company becomes both the debtor and creditor of the same debt, which is canceled at the level of the American branch.”
While a spokesman for the Kochs said they’ve done nothing illegal, political leaders at home are ballistic
“Americans are sick and tired of big corporations arranging sweetheart deals with tax havens to dodge their U.S. tax obligations,” said U.S. Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., who made of corporate tax avoidance his big issue. “It is unfair and unaffordable to let another year pass without eliminating the unjustified corporate tax giveaways that force everyone else to pick up the tab for government services.”
