News & Events

The use of tax haven loopholes by multinational companies costs American taxpayers more than $130 billion per year.  Outright tax evasion by wealthy individuals drains an additional $35 billion annually.  At a time when budgets are being slashed and taxpayers are being asked to forgo much-needed services, Congress should be working to protect taxpayers with real tax reform that addresses the real problem.  Unfortunately, the proposed House tax reform blueprint doubles down on loopholes that facilitate the gaming of the tax code.

Even if the proposed House tax reform package were effective at ending the gaming — it isn’t — its effects on many would still be devastating.  According to the architect of the plan, Alan Auerbach, the blueprint’s currency adjustment will cause U.S. investments in foreign assets to plummet by 20%, at a cost of nearly $2 trillion.  Other researchers estimate the cost at nearly $5 trillion.

Anonymous companies have opened the U.S. real estate market to the corrupt and criminal.  Towers of Secrecy, a series in the New York Times, started highlighting the abuse of these companies through opaque real estate deals back in 2015.  What they found was shocking: a Malaysian kleptocrat allegedly using US real estate to launder over $1 billion in stolen funds, a developer shielded from accountability while ignoring zoning laws, and people being defrauded from their homes with no hope for recourse.

Partially inspired by the series, last January, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a branch of the U.S. Treasury Department, announced Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) aimed at uncovering these secret deals. The GTOs required U.S. title insurance companies to identify the natural persons, or beneficial owners, behind shell companies used to pay “all cash” for luxury real estate in the Miami and New York metropolitan areas for a six-month period. The GTOs were extended and expanded to the Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Diego, and San Francisco areas in July.