Earlier this year, Amazon and Netflix made headlines when ITEP reported findings that these and at least 58 other companies paid no federal income taxes in 2018. One of the tax breaks they use to manage this feat is related to stock options, the subject of a new ITEP report.
On Tuesday night, 25 Republicans joined nearly all the chamber’s Democrats to approve the Corporate Transparency Act, a bill that would require those creating a company to report its owners to the federal government. The White House expressed support but called for the House and Senate to work on certain details.
In 2017, a Colorado court convicted four individuals, including a former police officer, of racketeering, money laundering, and conspiracy for illegally selling counterfeit Denver Broncos merchandise as well as additional sports products from other professional and college teams around the country. A key element of the international counterfeiting scheme was the use of more than 20 anonymous companies.
This is just one of a number of schemes that were highlighted in a FACT Coalition report, titled “Anonymous Companies Help Finance Illicit Commerce and Harm American Businesses and Citizens,” which was published earlier this year. Authored by David M. Luna, a former U.S. national security official and current chair of the Anti-Illicit Trade Committee of the United States Council for International Business, the report reveals the harms imposed upon legitimate businesses, unwitting consumers, and even the United States military by anonymous companies engaging in the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods. Currently, these criminal entities operate with impunity in the United States and are able to circumvent the law with little risk of accountability. The report concludes that enacting legislation requiring the disclosure of beneficial ownership information is an essential measure to combat the increasingly prolific abuses perpetrated by these shadowy networks.
In recent days, presidential candidates Sen. Kamala Harris and New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio have called for taxing corporate profits the same whether they are earned in the United States or abroad. These calls echo the position of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has long had a proposal along these lines. As ITEP has explained, correcting this inequity is not a mere detail but rather a sweeping reform that could end incentives for companies to shift profits and jobs offshore.
The images of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un waving from atop a Mercedes Benz limo have made the rounds on the internet over the past few days in the wake of a new study published by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) and covered by the New York Times and CNN, among others. C4ADS research details how North Korea has evaded sanctions to secure luxury goods — and other more nefarious items — through its illicit finance operations.
Business Support Continues to Grow for Corporate Ownership Transparency
A group of CEOs from major companies, a trade association of major multinational enterprises, and a small business trade group each called on Congress over the past week to end the abuse of anonymous shell companies, adding to the momentum to enact corporate ownership transparency legislation.
CEOs
A dozen current and former CEOs from major corporations (including Allianz, Chobani, Danone, Kering, and Unilever) sent a letter to Congress on Tuesday calling on lawmakers to end anonymous shell companies by enacting the bipartisan Corporate Transparency Act of 2019.
