Corporate greed is getting out of hand, and Mark Cuban isn't going to take it anymore.
The billionaire investor and owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks took to Twitter Friday morning to shame companies for moving offshore to buck taxes.
If I own stock in your company and you move offshore for tax reasons I'm selling your stock. There are enough investment choices here
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 25, 2014
The Mavericks owner is known for his loud and sometimes distasteful comments. His latest comments are pretty docile in comparison. His message: If I don't like the way you do business, I'm going to take my business elsewhere.
Cuban's rant came the day after President Obama voiced his own opposition to a tax-avoidance scheme called an inversion, in which a U.S. company establishes or merges with a foreign company and moves its headquarters overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes. The Obama administration has put pressure on Congress to close this loophole, which according to CNBC could cost the government up to $20 billion in the next 10 years.
When companies move off shore to save on taxes, you and I make up the tax shortfall elsewhere sell those stocks and they won't move
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 25, 2014
Aside from physically moving their headquarters offshore, many major companies also simply stash overseas profits offshore to avoid paying tax on that income. General Electric leads all other U.S. companies in that regard with $110 billion overseas.
Unfortunately, if you put your money into something like a 401(k), its pretty hard to stop investing in companies that avoid paying taxes, either by inversion or by keeping money outside of the country. The odds are high that at least some of your mutual funds invest in GE, Apple, Microsoft and others that top the list of companies with the most money offshore. You also probably don't have the deep pockets and investment managers that Cuban has to help him.
Nevertheless, Cuban did offer some tips if you're interested.
1)Are you willing to call your broker or fund and tell them to sell companies that increase your tax bill by moving overseas?
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 25, 2014
2) make sure to check the tax consequences of selling before you make a decision
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 25, 2014