Billionaire Blasts Companies That Jump Overseas To Duck Taxes: ‘I’m Selling Your Stock’

As more and more American corporations have used mergers and shell companies to shift profits and shrink their U.S. tax liabilities over the past few years, there has generally been a sharp divide between populists who decry the maneuvers and investors who celebrate them. Friday morning saw a high-profile defection from the economic elites’ camp, however, as outspoken billionaire investor Mark Cuban pledged to sell off his holdings in companies that move offshore for tax reasons. “If I own stock in your company and you move offshore for tax reasons I’m selling your stock,” Cuban tweeted. Rather than seeking a synthetic boost in their stock price by shifting tax burdens onto others, Cuban said, American companies should persuade investors to accept slower growth in their market returns in exchange for job growth and expansion here at home. His primary rationale is a self-interested rather than a philanthropic or political one, as you might expect from a wealthy investor with a healthy competitive streak. “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,” he tweeted later.