The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition) sent a letter of support to the sponsors of the Stop Corporate Inversions Act of 2019. The full letter can be read below or downloaded here.
____________________
August 28, 2019
The Honorable Dick Durbin
The United States Senate
711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Jack Reed
The United States Senate
728 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Tammy Baldwin
The United States Senate
709 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Richard Blumenthal
The United States Senate
706 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Sherrod Brown
The United States Senate
503 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 201510
The Honorable Tammy Duckworth
The United States Senate
524 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
The United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Mazie K. Hirono
The United States Senate
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy
The United States Senate
437 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Jeff Merkley
The United States Senate
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Bernard Sanders
The United States Senate
332 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Elizabeth Warren
The United States Senate
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse
The United States Senate
530 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
RE: Stop Corporate Inversions Act of 2019 (S.2140)
Dear Senators Durbin, Reed, Baldwin, Blumenthal, Brown, Duckworth, Feinstein, Hirono, Leahy, Merkley, Sanders, Warren, and Whitehouse,
We write on behalf of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition to express our strong support for your Stop Corporate Inversions Act of 2019 (S.2140), which would combat tax avoidance by preventing inverted corporations from being treated as foreign companies when they have not left the United States in any legitimate sense.
The FACT Coalition is 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 and promoting policies to combat the harmful impacts of corrupt financial practices.
We support putting an end to corporate inversions because such gimmicks allow companies to maximize the benefits of exploiting offshore tax loopholes. This type of tax dodging hurts American small businesses and costs U.S. taxpayers billions in foregone revenue that could be used to fund public programs and infrastructure, cut taxes for middle class families, or lower our national debt.
Under the current system, companies that invert can easily continue to benefit from the stable financial system, markets, educated workforce, and infrastructure in our country while simultaneously claiming that U.S.-earned profits were earned in a low- or no-tax jurisdiction. In other words, it allows U.S.-based multinational corporations to benefit from their U.S. residence without paying to support the very system that earns them such record-high profits.
These tax gimmicks are used most regularly by the largest and most highly profitable multinational corporations, at the detriment of small and wholly domestic American businesses. U.S. businesses who are unwilling or unable to invert are forced to compete with these multinational corporations not just on the merits of their products and services, but also on the cleverness of their tax attorneys.
By requiring that an inverted company meets certain thresholds to be considered foreign for tax purposes, the Stop Corporate Inversions Act would significantly limit tax avoidance facilitated by inversions. Businesses that are owned, operated, and profiting in the United States should pay taxes in the United States — not in a tax haven country where their business presence is often little more than a mailbox and some paperwork.
We applaud your reintroduction of this bill and thank you for your continued leadership in fighting tax avoidance and leveling the playing field for patriotic Americans and domestic businesses.
Sincerely,
Gary Kalman
Executive Director
Clark Gascoigne
Deputy Director
About the FACT Coalition
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition is 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 and promoting policies to combat the harmful impacts of corrupt financial practices.
1225 Eye St. NW, Suite 600 | Washington, DC | 20005 | USA
+1 (202) 827-6401 | @FACTCoalition | www.thefactcoalition.org