WASHINGTON, DC –(ENEWSPF)—April 14, 2015. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced the Stop Corporate Tax Dodging Act today to stop profitable corporations from sheltering income overseas in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes. The legislation also would end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.
“Over the past 30 to 40 years, virtually every time Americans have been asked to make ‘tough choices,’ it has resulted in disproportionate harm to low- and middle-income individuals and families,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “Cuts to programs that help Americans get ahead and stay ahead have been significant, while tax breaks have been handed out like candy to captains of industry and the behemoth corporations they run. Most perversely, these tax breaks have incentivized moving revenue and jobs overseas. It’s time that we end that skewed system, and the Stop Corporate Tax Dodging Act would help us do that.”
“At a time when we have a $18.2 trillion national debt and an unsustainable federal deficit; at a time when many of the largest corporations in America are paying no federal income taxes; and at a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high, it is past time for corporate America to pay their fair share in taxes so that we can create the millions of jobs this country needs,” said Sen. Sanders.
Eighty-three of the Fortune 100 companies in the United States have used offshore tax havens to lower their taxes, according to the most recent Government Accountability Office study.
Schakowsky’s bill and a companion measure introduced today in the Senate by Sanders would yield more than $590 billion in revenue over the next decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The Stop Corporate Tax Dodging Act also would remove tax code incentives for U.S. companies to ship American jobs and factories abroad – tax breaks which have contributed to the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs and the closure of some 60,000 American factories since 2000.
Under current law, U.S. corporations are allowed to defer or delay U.S. income taxes on overseas profits until the money is brought back into the United States. U.S. corporations are also provided foreign tax credits to offset the amount of taxes paid to other countries. Under the Stop Corporate Tax Dodging Act, corporations would pay U.S. taxes on their offshore profits as they are earned. The legislation would take away the tax incentives for corporations to move jobs offshore or to shift profits offshore because the U.S. would tax their profits no matter where they are generated.
Source: Schakowsky.house.gov
