Our country is in a financial crisis, nearing a double dip recession, struggling to maintain a balance of politics and economics...but we're slowly losing our grip.
But what if you were told that there is a pot of gold on the other side of the rainbow? And this pot would be able to put a significant dent in our country's massive deficit. You would listen right?
Well that pot of gold is actually $60 billion made each year that some believe belongs in the U.S. but instead it's located on the other side (not of the rainbow) but of the Atlantic, in a small town called Zug, Switzerland.
And worst of all, that money may continue to be untouchable. It is tax money not coming into the IRS from American corporations. These companies avoid paying taxes by simply settling their profits overseas and after looking at the U.S. tax code, it practically encourages companies to move businesses out of the country.
The U.S. have the highest corporate taxes in the world, at 35%, and has been criticized for being uncompetitive globally. Within the past decade or so, thousands of companies avoid the high tax rates and settle their assets down in the world's greatest tax haven, Zug.
The population of the town of Zug is 26,000 while the number of companies in the area is 30,000 and growing at an average of 800 per year. Interestingly enough, most of these companies are just mailboxes, with no office spaces, just a place for your company's headquarters in order to dodge the high taxes of the U.S.
Many politicians are crying out that this money that is trapped abroad should be brought back over to the U.S. in small pieces to stimulate the economy.
Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett questions whether the recent moves of several companies are legit. "A good example is one of my Texas companies that's been in the news lately, Transocean," Rep. Doggett told Stahl.
Other companies being called out in this 60 Minutes report are Coca-Cola, Weatherford, and Cisco.
Companies searching out tax havens is nothing new. In the 80s and 90s, there was an exodus to Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, where there are no taxes at all.
When President Obama threatened to clamp down on tax dodging, many companies decided to leave the Caribbean, but as we first told you in March, instead of coming back home, they went to safer havens like Switzerland.
Several of these companies came to a small, quaint medieval town in Switzerland called Zug.
*Indented text comes from CBS.com and 60 Minutes
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"Destroying the New World Order"
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