36 former military and civilian national security leaders sent a letter to the House of Representatives’ Committee on Financial Services, urging members to end anonymous shell companies.
The FACT Coalition joined 53 additional organizations to send a letter to Congress supporting the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act – S. 2459, which would eliminate the deep discount that multinational companies get for shifting profits offshore and outsourcing jobs.
Anonymous shell companies are the vehicle of choice for a wide variety of bad actors. Drug cartels and human trafficking operations have long understood the benefits of corporate secrecy to launder money. Terror groups have learned these lessons, and today illicit financing and evading sanctions are as much a part of their strategy as any bombing or attack. Corrupt leaders in nations around the world steal public funds to prop up their regimes, undermine democratic institutions and ideals, and create internal and regional instability.
The FACT Coalition sent this memo to explain concerns with an IRS approach to collecting beneficial ownership information.
Tax activists this week criticized a U.S. government move to exempt large defense contractors from a financial disclosure rule meant to fight international tax dodging, saying the need for a national security exemption was unproven.
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition’s criticism came after the U.S. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service sided in late March with defense contractors that had asked the agencies for the exemption.
Last week, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster conceded that, “We have failed to impose sufficient costs… [on Russia for the Kremlin’s use of]…new and old forms of aggression to undermine our open societies.” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of Russia’s Internet Research Agency and related individuals, made clear the extent of the operation attacking our country’s elections and institutions. And yet, more than a year after the 2016 presidential election, and with mid-term elections looming on the horizon, little has been done to increase America’s defenses against the threat of foreign interference in our democracy or impose costs on those who do.
