New Bill Closes Biggest Corporate Tax Loopholes, Offers Commonsense Tax Reform Solutions

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U.S. PIRG

Statement from U.S. PIRG Tax and Budget Advocate Michelle Surka on Rep. Pocan’s New Bill to Close Corporate Tax Loopholes:

 “The Tax Fairness and Transparency Act is a commonsense solution to some of the most nonsensical problems facing tax policy today. Offshore tax haven abuse and the loopholes that facilitate such tax avoidance help only a few of the largest multinational corporations. In fact, just 30 Fortune 500 corporations hold 66% of the money stashed offshore. These practices cost the U.S. about $135 billion annually.

Small businesses must compete on an unfair playing field, and ordinary Americans must pick up the tab for these tax dodgers in the form of programs cuts, higher taxes, and more national debt.

Representative Pocan’s bill cuts to the heart of the matter and puts an end to these unreasonable gimmicks and tax games. By ending deferral, which allows corporations to avoid paying taxes on cash held offshore indefinitely, removing incentives for corporate inversions, and requiring more transparency regarding a company’s tax liability on a country by country basis, this bill is the best solution to a tax code that has been set up to benefit only the few.

Unlike many of the other tax reform proposals being discussed in Congress, Representative Pocan’s bill solves the problem of tax avoidance, offshore tax haven abuse, and other tax gimmicks. We hope that future tax reform will incorporate these concepts.”