To the editor:

The number of U.S. companies that have shifted their tax domiciles out of the United States to other countries since 1983 to avoid U.S. corporate taxes now number 76.

Walgreens, the U.S.’s largest drug store chain, with more than 8,500 stories, soon will decide whether to take advantage of a loop hole in the U.S. tax laws that would allow them to save billions of dollars by moving their headquarters to Europe. Making the move could save the company as much as $4 billion in corporate taxes over the next five years.

Just recently, President Obama called inversion an unpatriotic tax loophole and pressed Congress to pass legislation to stem the flow of corporations renouncing their U.S. citizenship. Inversion could cost the U.S. Treasury nearly $19.5 billion over the next decade.

The question now is will more large companies move to Europe to take advantage of the loophole as well. Time will tell.

Also, I would like to bring up another subject.

Oxymoron, a 21st century word meaning language that says one thing but means another is contradiction (example: jumbo shrimp). Are we being fooled by our government’s use of the word sequester?

The budget cuts’ so-called sequester are not cuts at all, but just a reduction in spending.

The Senate has not passed a budget in four years so the “budget” has increased 24 percent with no vote.

Many individuals must ask themselves if their income increased 24 percent in the last four years. For most the answer is no.

The sequester calls for $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years or $120 billion per year. The budget, even after full sequester equals $100 billion increase.

So to say that we will lay off defense workers, close national parks, slow down air traffic, lay off school teachers, etc., and yet increase spending is the biggest oxymoron of this century.

Jane Dickinson

Lehigh Acres