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.
Bipartisan Voices Agree that Senate Bill Will Increase Shifting of Production Overseas and Profits to Tax Havens
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate on Saturday passed its own version of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” — legislation that will reward offshore tax haven abuse and increase the incentive to outsource American jobs abroad, according to the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition.
When the Panama Papers were released just a little over a year ago it sent shockwaves throughout the world. The massive scale of the leak and the VIP’s that it implicated outraged a public that had already seen the wealthy and corporations as not paying their fair share. Though, with all that the leak revealed, an important question was on everyone’s minds, where are the Americans? This past week, it seems, we found them.
The Paradise Papers—a leak of 13 million documents from Appleby, a large offshore law firm—contains details on tax avoidance techniques of at least 31,000 U.S. citizens, residents and companies. This includes household names like Apple, Nike, and Uber. While governments have moved to crack down on tax avoidance schemes, documents in the leak show how Apple and Nike were able to outrun regulators by exploiting gaps between differing tax codes.
Just a few days before the leak, House leaders released a tax plan that rewards companies for creating complicated tax avoidance structures like those found in the leak. It is, in effect, a gift to the multinational companies that have dodged taxes for years by offshoring profits and jobs with an estimated $458 billion tax giveaway on the profits that are currently offshore. In 2004, a similar measure was used in an effort to create jobs yet the multinationals who benefited most from the repatriation holiday slashed 20,000 U.S. jobs over the next two years.
Bipartisan Voices Agree that H.R. 1 Will Increase Shifting of Production Overseas and Profits to Tax Havens
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (H.R. 1) — legislation that will reward offshore tax haven abuse and increase the incentive to outsource American jobs abroad, according to the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition.
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.
Coalition Welcomes Wisconsin Senator’s Remarks in Opposition to Tax Plan
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In announcing his opposition to the Senate tax plan Wednesday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) mentioned that the bill’s shift to a so-called “territorial” tax system — whereby corporations are not taxed on their offshore profits — is one of the things that concerns him.
