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Close Tax Loopholes

There is widespread agreement, across the political spectrum, that the gaming of the tax code by multinational corporations is a problem. When profits and jobs are shipped offshore, we not only harm the U.S. economy, we fuel a tax haven industry that drains wealth around the world. We seek to fix the problem of large, well-connected interests gaming the tax system.

Treasury Department Building

FACT Coalition Applauds Move by Treasury to Curb Harmful Inversions and Earnings Stripping

Statement of Clark Gascoigne, Interim Executive Director, Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition
Note: Yesterday evening the U.S. Department of Treasury announced regulatory actions to further limit the ability of multinational corporations to benefit from the tax avoidance maneuvers known as “inversions” and “earnings stripping.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Clark Gascoigne, the Interim Executive Director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, issued the following statement today reacting to the announcement of new measures by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to counter corporate tax inversions:

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Treasury Department

FACT Urges Treasury to Act on Inversions in Letter

The Honorable Jacob J. Lew
Secretary of the Treasury
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20220
 

Dear Secretary Lew,

On behalf of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, I am writing to urge the Department of the Treasury to take all measures within its authority to curtail the ability of corporations to avoid paying taxes by engaging in corporate inversions. Explicitly, FACT believes that the Treasury Department could take further steps to prevent inversions through the use of its regulatory authority under Sections 956 and 7701 of the U.S. Tax Code.

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Treasury Department Building

How Treasury Could Take Action to Prevent Inversions

Even as more large companies announce plans to take advantage of the inversion loophole to avoid taxes, Congress has refused to move on commonsense legislation that would put an end to inversions. Fortunately, as outlined in a new letter signed by Citizens for Tax Justice and 54 other groups, there are a number of additional actions that the Treasury Department could take without Congressional approval to stem the tide of inversions.

Although Treasury issued new regulations in response to the surge in inversions in 2014 and 2015, Pfizer’s planned inversion with Allergan demonstrates that the regulations so far have been inadequate to prevent this and similar planned inversions by Johnson Controls and IHS. Perhaps the biggest motivation for Pfizer’s planned inversion is that it could allow the company to avoid an estimated $40 billion in taxes that it owes on the $194 billion in untaxed earnings the company has offshore. Expatriating to Ireland through an inversion will allow Pfizer to avoid paying any tax on its offshore hoard through an accounting gimmick called a hopscotch loan, which effectively allows the new foreign parent company to reinvest its untaxed offshore earnings without triggering the US taxes it would normally owe.

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Tax Reform Should Close Offshore Loopholes, End Tax Haven Abuse

FACT Coalition Submits Comments to House Ways and Means Committee Ahead of International Tax Reform Hearing
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of a planned hearing on international tax reform, the FACT (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency) Coalition today submitted comments to the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means urging lawmakers to focus reform efforts on closing offshore loopholes and ending tax haven abuse.

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Civil Society Assails Multinational Tax Giveaway

“Tax Extenders” Deal Could Permanently Enshrine Outrageous Tax Dodging Loophole in Tax Code, Extend Another One for Five Years
Congressional Negotiators Ignore a Hundred Thousand Letters from Constituents Calling for an End to Egregious Offshore Tax Loopholes
WASHINGTON, DC – Civil society groups assailed a backroom congressional tax deal released early this morning as an egregious giveaway to multinational tax dodgers at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.  The so called “tax extenders” deal could permanently enshrine in the tax code an offshore loophole known as the “Active Financing Exception”, which is abused by multinational companies to artificially shift profits overseas and dodge taxes at the expense of the American public.  The deal also extends for five years another offshore loophole, known as the “CFC Look-Through Rule”, which also allows corporations to use accounting tricks to avoid paying taxes.

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