A report published by Citizens for Tax Justice in October 2016 criticized US tax policy on large multinational corporations. Many multinational corporations used accounting tricks to pretend for that a substantial portion of their profits were generated in offshore tax havens, countries with minimal or no taxes where a company’s presence could be as little as a mailbox.
The study examined the use of tax havens by Fortune 500 companies in 2015. It revealed that tax haven use was ubiquitous among America’s largest companies and that a narrow set of companies benefited disproportionately.
Amongst these companies Pfizer was named in the report both as one of the 'Top 30 companies with the most money held offshore' and as one of the 'Top 20 Companies with the Most Tax Haven Subsidiaries'.
It was found to maintain 181 subsidiaries in the following tax havens: Bahamas (11), Cayman Islands (1), Channel Islands (3), Costa Rica (3), Hong Kong (7), Ireland (29), Luxembourg (42), Netherlands (65), Panama (4), Singapore (10) and Switzerland (6)
The amount held offshore was liste as $193.6 billion (the second-highest amngst the Fortune 500).