How companies from UK, tax havens, pour cash into US elections

Cross-posted with the Treasure Islands blog:

The Guardian has an interesting story entitled How British companies pour cash into the American elections, which starts like this:

More than one in five of Britain's largest corporations are channelling political donations to favoured candidates ahead of next month's elections in the US – though these sums may be only the tip of a new campaign-financing iceberg, according to leading politicians, judges and pro-transparency watchdogs.

Although only US citizens (and immigrants with green cards) can contribute to federal politics, the US divisions of foreign companies can form political action committees (PACs) and collect contributions from their American employees. Typically, the PACs are staffed by company lobbyists and distribute campaign contributions in line with the company's lobbying agenda.

I have looked into the data from the Center for Responsive Politics, and the table below outlines the sums involved. British companies are the biggest contributors, wth

Out of US$12.8 million donated in this election cycle, $3.6m come from British companies, followed not too far behind by Swiss companies, with $2.0 million. Various other contributions come from tax havens including Bermuda, the Netherlands, Singapore (if you don't think these jurisdictions are tax havens, then click on the links I provide in the table below). Note that this is not a full picture: this is just foreign PACs. (Just think of e.g. all those Cayman-based hedge funds which are major donors to US politics but aren't on this list.)

Given that the UK is, as I have frequently explained, responsible for about half the world's tax havens, and has many characteristics of a tax haven itself, this means that just for these PACs, $6.6 million - or more than half the total come from what one might call the offshore world.

Switzerland	Total	Dems	Reps
ABB	500	500	0
ACE	232500	98000	134500
Nestle	8000	2000	6000
Credit Suisse	423500	203000	220500
Zurich financial	149700	29750	119950
Genetech	234000	114500	119500
Roche	39500	28000	11500
Nestle waters	14000	12000	2000
Swiss Re	1000	0	1000
Syngenta	185000	58500	126500
UBS	610000	263000	347000
Zurich Ins	134500	61500	73000
TOTAL	2032200	870750	1161450
UK
AstraZeneca	562,952	256452	306500
Cobham	126200	29500	96700
Commonwealth Altadis	70500	15000	55500
Diageo	80208	44711	35497
HSBC	170500	67500	103000
Medimumme	67000	36000	31000
National Grid	98400	71900	26500
Serco	57400	16500	40900
Smiths	52500	15500	38750
Citizens / RBS	135250	105750	29500
Greyhound	13500	8500	5000
Aviva	6500	4000	0
BAE Systems	609750	237500	372250
BP	135000	39500	95500
Burston/WPP	53250	25750	27500
Experian	320000	72000	248000
GKN	500	500	0
GlaxoSK	425250	211000	214250
Hill/WPP	2000	2000	0
Jackson/Pru	136179	20000	116179
Kenecott/Rio	14000	4500	9500
SAB Miller	121500	23500	98000
Rolls Royce	226250	57000	169250
Tate Lyle	18500	3000	15500
Wexler/WPP	102500	42500	60000
Willis	15500	0	15500
TOTAL	3,621,089	1410063	2210276
Singapore
APL	35500	6000	29500
Luxembourg
ArcelorMittal	53500	26000	27500
Bermuda
Axis	3000	2000	1000
Bacardi	13000	6500	6500
Covidien	194800	73500	121300
Weatherford	7500	0	7500
TOTAL	218300	82000	136300
Netherlands
Aegon	170000	88500	81500
Carmeuse	10500	3000	7500
EADS	168500	65500	103600
Heineken	29500	12000	17500
ING	88500	48000	40500
Louis Dreyfus	38500	4000	34500
Phillips	113,404	22994	90410
Shell	27500	2500	25000
TOTAL	646404	246494	400510