Multinational companies do not publicly report on where they are making their money or what taxes they are paying to whom. Investors, policymakers, and citizens have no idea exactly how they are gaming the system—what they tell us versus what they tell other countries. They should have to write it down in one place and report it on a country-by-country basis, so that the public, policymakers, and shareholders can see what they are really paying.
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.
The tax system under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes loopholes and incentives to shift money and jobs overseas.
The FACT Coalition filed a comment on January 2, 2018 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) supporting the agency’s proposal to mandate the disclosure of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) numbers by public companies and their subsidiaries. The Coalition also urged requiring all public companies to obtain LEIs, ensuring that the LEIs are disclosed in a machine-readable format, and mandating that companies disclose all of their subsidiaries in their disclosures, rather than simply their “significant” subsidiaries.
Rolling Back Extractives Transparency Measure Will Hamper U.S. National Security
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House Financial Services Committee voted 33-27 Wednesday to repeal a bipartisan anti-corruption safeguard — Section 1504 of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 — in a move that was criticized by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition.
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition) sent a letter to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and Ranking Member Maxine Waters in opposition to H.R.4519, which would repeal the bipartisan Cardin-Lugar anti-corruption provision (Section 1504) of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.
Clark Gascoigne, the deputy director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition) delivered remarks on a press call with reporters as the AFL-CIO and Domini Impact Investments announced that they were filing a shareholder resolution with Nike calling for responsible tax practices in the wake of the Paradise Papers leak.
Boosting Tax Transparency to Guard Investors, Protect Taxpayers, and Inform Policymakers
Disclosing more information on where companies book profits, record revenues, and pay taxes would protect taxpayers by discouraging abusive tax avoidance schemes; protect shareholders by providing them with information about the risks associated with their investments; and inform policymakers as Congress considers overhauling the U.S. tax code.
