Senator Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and the ranking Republican member Senator Grassley (R-IA) are supporting an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) into an offshore tax haven located in the Cayman Islands. This was being reported today by Congressional Quarterly.
GAO investigators will be visiting the Cayman Islands to meet with representatives of the local government in an effort to find ways to stop the use of offshore establishments to collect untaxed revenue. According to the article, one specific five-story building used by thousands of companies, known as The Ugland House, will be at the top of the investigative agenda.
In a joint press release issued today, Senator Baucus stated that their “hope in sending GAO investigators to the Caymans is to get some answers about whether business there indeed contributes to the U.S. tax gap, which totals more than $300 billion each year.” Senator Grassley was quoted as saying “we need to strike the right balance between allowing Americans to benefit from the global economy and policing the evasion of U.S. taxes.”
