Tax Blueprint’s Big Winners Are Corporate Tax Dodgers

Sept. 27 -- As the Trump administration and Congressional leaders unveil their plans for reworking taxes, the proposal contains recommendations that would allow multinational corporations to avoid taxes on the profits they book offshore. 

Already, our loophole-ridden corporate tax code is rigged for and by big companies and their armies of tax lawyers.

There is an estimated $2.5 trillion in profits from U.S. companies stashed offshore, which, thanks to loopholes in the law, allows companies to indefinitely defer the taxes they own on that profit. Most of that money, 66 percent, is held by just 30 companies.

Those offshore tax dodgers are the biggest winners with the new proposal. 

Instead of closing loopholes, this framework would create new, and even bigger loopholes. Instead of ending incentives to offshore income they would make these incentives even larger by moving our tax system to a ‘territorial’ tax system, which disregards income booked offshore. 

This puts wholly domestic business on unequal footing, as they don’t hide their money in a Cayman Islands subsidiary, they just pay what they owe.

Why should a store on Main Street pay a higher tax rate than a corporate giant like Pfizer or Apple? 

The money for these massive tax cuts for a handful of the most successful businesses on earth don’t come out of a hat. We will need to accompany such dramatic pay outs with cuts to the programs that support our families or deepen the debt and deficit. 

Why should the rest of us pick up the tab to allow a handful of companies to avoid paying the same taxes as everyone else?