The world\u2019s biggest drug companies are putting poor people\u2019s health at risk by depriving governments of billions of dollars in taxes that could be used to invest in health care, and by using their power and influence to torpedo attempts to bring down drug costs and police their behavior.<\/p>\n
Tax evasion<\/a>\u00a0is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of\u00a0taxes<\/a>\u00a0by individuals,\u00a0corporations<\/a>,\u00a0trusts<\/a>, and others.\u00a0New Oxfam research shows that four major pharmaceutical firms\u2014Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer\u2014systematically stash their profits in overseas tax havens. 1 As a result, these four corporate giants appear to deprive the United States of $2.3 billion annually and deny other advanced economies of $1.4 billion. And they appear to deprive the cash-strapped governments of developing countries of an estimated $112 million every year\u2014money that could be spent on vaccines, midwives, or rural clinics.<\/p>\n Such tax dodging corrodes the ability of governments everywhere to provide the public services that are essential to reducing poverty and that are particularly important for women. And it weakens governments\u2019 ability to invest in health research, which has proven to be fundamental to medical breakthroughs.<\/p>\n As if this weren\u2019t enough, the corporations mount massive lobbying operations to give price gouging and tax dodging a veneer of legitimacy. Their influence peddling is most blatant in the United States, where the pharmaceutical industry outspends all others on lobbying. But it is equally pernicious in developing countries, where the companies have won sweetheart deals that lower their taxes and divert scarce public health dollars to pay for their high-priced products\u2014and where they deploy the clout of the US government to protect their profits.<\/p>\n Tax dodging by pharmaceutical companies is enriching wealthy shareholders and company executives at the expense of us all\u2014with the highest price paid by poor women and girls.<\/p>\n Oxfam is not accusing the drug companies of doing anything illegal. Rather, this report exposes how corporations can use sophisticated tax planning to take advantage of a broken system that allows multinational corporations from many different industries to get away with avoiding taxes.<\/p>\n When funding is cut, families lose medical care or are driven further into poverty by health care debts. When health systems crumble, women and girls step into the breach to provide unpaid care for their loved ones\u2014compromising their own health and their prospects for education and employment. When governments are deprived of corporate tax revenues, they often seek to balance the budget by raising consumption taxes, which tend to take a larger bite out of poor women\u2019s incomes.<\/p>\n Corporations should be more transparent about where they earn their money, they should pay tax in alignment with actual economic activity, rather than abusing tax havens, and they should use their political influence responsibly, rather than undermining governments\u2019 efforts to provide medicines, schools, and roads for us all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"