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54 NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS TO CONGRESS: End the Corporate Tax Preference for Shifting Jobs & Profits Offshore

The FACT Coalition joined 53 additional organizations to send a letter to Congress supporting the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act – S. 2459 and H.R. 5108,  which would eliminate the deep discount that multinational companies get for shifting profits offshore and outsourcing jobs. The full letter can be read below or downloaded here.

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Dear Member of Congress,

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will allow companies to avoid taxes on $235 billion in profits each year going forward according to the Congressional Budget Office. This is revenue that should be funding critical public investments in healthcare, education, infrastructure, and other priorities. Moreover, the law created new incentives for multinational corporations to move their real operations offshore. The law guarantees that U.S. multinational corporations will pay at most one-half the domestic tax rate on their offshore earnings, with many companies paying little or nothing in taxes on these earnings. This means that under the new law a U.S. multinational company will pay a much lower tax rate if it invests in Ireland than if it invests in Indiana.

We write to express our support for the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act – S. 2459 introduced by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and H.R. 5108 introduced by Representative Lloyd Doggett – and ask you to become a co-sponsor of this critical legislation. This bill would provide a simple, straightforward fix to one of the most egregious problems created by the TCJA. It would level the playing field for small and wholly domestic businesses by eliminating the deep discount that multinational companies get for shifting profits offshore and outsourcing jobs. It is counterproductive to the goals of a fair and growing economy to allow U.S. companies to pay a lower tax rate abroad than they pay in the United States.

The legislation would also close the corporate inversion loophole, which allows companies to avoid paying U.S. taxes by pretending to be a foreign company on paper. The bill would prevent an American corporation from using a merger with a foreign company to claim that it is foreign for tax purposes if it continues to be managed and controlled in the United States or if a majority of the U.S. company’s shareholders own the resulting company after the merger. Additionally, the legislation would curb the biggest incentive for companies to invert by limiting the practice of earnings stripping in which intercompany loans are used to shift profits out of the United States into low-tax subsidiaries.

We strongly encourage you to co-sponsor the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act in order to make our tax system fairer, raise critically needed revenue, and encourage job creation here in America.

Sincerely,

AFL-CIO

Alliance for Retired Americans

Amalgamated Transit Union

American Family Voices

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)

American Postal Workers Union (APWU)

Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)

Americans for Tax Fairness

Campaign for America’s Future

Center for Popular Democracy Action

Coalition on Human Needs

Color of Change

Communications Workers of America (CWA)

Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, US Provinces

CREDO

Daily Kos

EPI Policy Center

Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition

Food & Water Watch

Franciscan Action Network

Global Financial Integrity

Indivisible

International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers

International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and

Helpers

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)

International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE)

International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of

America

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Jobs With Justice

Main Street Alliance

MomsRising

National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd

National Education Association

National Employment Law Project

National Organization for Women

NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice

Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, Islamic Society of North America

Oxfam America

Patriotic Millionaires

People Demanding Action

Progressive Congress Action Fund

Public Citizen

RootsAction.org

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Small Business Majority

Social Security Works

The Arc of the United States

The Other 98%

Union Veterans Council

UNITE HERE

United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service

Workers International Union (USW)

Working America

Working Families Party

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