Number of the Day

$10 billion: The estimated amount of annual revenue losses to the US Treasury care of the "check-the-box" rule, which "allows U.S. companies to strip profits from operations in high-tax countries simply by marking an Internal Revenue Service form that transforms subsidiaries into what the agency calls a 'disregarded entity.' Others have labeled them 'tax nothings.' Check-the-box allows companies to avoid the normal 35 percent U.S. corporate tax on certain types of income."

A simple rule meant to cut paperwork for U.S. companies has grown into one of the biggest multinational tax breaks around, costing the United States and other governments billions of dollars in lost taxes each year.

It thrives thanks to determined business support, including a campaign two years ago that forced the Obama administration to retreat from altering it and tax professionals worldwide who exploit its benefits.

...[C]heck-the-box deals "are going like crazy," according to one prominent tax lawyer who helps structure such transactions. He declined to be named for fear of jeopardizing his job but added: "I can design these a thousand different ways."

Every time you hear a Republican talk about "class warfare," remember that it's a cynical obfuscation, to make sure that we keep bickering about individual tax rates and never pay attention to the plethora of corporate tax loopholes that subsidize the pillaging of the nation's resources and the exploitation of its people by multinational megacorps, who have no loyalty to the US and will move on to the next emergent empire as soon as they've bled this one dry.