The Gary Null Blog

Ships laden with tens of millions of dollars of American treasure pull into beautiful ports in places like the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas every day, offloading profits made on sales to U.S. consumers. These voyages -- all technically legal -- cost taxpayers $100 billion a year.

Now the corporate captains of these pirate ships have sent Congress an ominous ransom note that says: "Allow us to return these profits to American territory at a deeply discounted tax rate of 5.25 percent, or you'll never see your cash again."

The regular corporate tax rate is 35 percent.

Of course, modern pirates don't need cargo ships. They transmit booty instantaneously via electronic bits to satellite dishes that link the world's 50 tax havens. There, shell-company subsidiaries, often little more than a brass plate on the wall and a post office box, handle the transaction. Ugland House, a non-descript five-story building on Grand Cayman Island, houses nearly 19,000 subsidiaries of the world's largest businesses.

American corporations have stashed more than $1.4 trillion offshore. Much of this loot is reaped from accounting tricks.