The Tax Fairness and Transparency Act Puts Domestic Businesses and Middle Class Taxpayers First
WASHINGTON, D.C. – New legislation introduced Thursday by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) takes aim at the biggest offshore tax avoidance loopholes, offering a sensible template for tax reform, according to the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition), a non-partisan alliance of more than 100 state, national, and international organizations working toward a fair tax system that addresses the challenges of a global economy.
Introduced during the “Global Week of Action to #EndTaxHavens”, the bill specifically ends the biggest offshore tax loophole (the practice known as deferral), it cracks down on earnings stripping (to disincentivize inversions), and it increases transparency by requiring multinationals to publicly report their profits and taxes on a country-by-country basis.
Clark Gascoigne, the deputy director of the FACT Coalition, issued the following statement:
“The Tax Fairness and Transparency Act offers a pragmatic, enforceable response to the problem of offshore tax avoidance — a problem that costs U.S. taxpayers an estimated $135 billion annually.
“In contrast, the recent House tax reform blueprint attempts to end the offshore gaming of the tax code, but, in practice, it merely changes the nature of the gaming by incentivizing companies to shift the location of sales rather than the location of profits. It is a gift to creative tax planners.
“Instead of engaging in a fairly radical and untested policy exercise to upend the international corporate tax system, a better approach would be to fix and simplify the current one.
“The comparatively simple reforms in this bill would curb the gaming of the tax code and ensure that wholly domestic and small businesses can compete more fairly with multinationals. Rep. Pocan’s legislation should serve as a template for what positive tax reform looks like.”
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Notes to Editors:
- Read an online version of this press release.
- Read the press release from Rep. Pocan.
- Read a one-page summary of the Tax Fairness and Transparency Act.
- Read the full text of the Tax Fairness and Transparency Act.
- Learn more about the “Global Week of Action to #EndTaxHavens” from our international colleagues at the Global Alliance for Tax Justice.
Journalist Contact:
Clark Gascoigne
Deputy Director, The FACT Coalition
+1 202 813-0290
cgascoigne@thefactcoalition.org