Demand an End to Corporate Tax Dodging

It’s no secret that large corporations are using loopholes to avoid taxes and the federal government is missing out on revenue that could help fund programs on the chopping block in upcoming budget negotiations. Between 2008 and 2012, more than two dozen corporations — Facebook, GE and Verizon among them — managed to avoid paying any income tax at all.

But in a recent report, the advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness writes, “it doesn’t have to be this way.” Two bills have been introduced in Congress that could close some of these loopholes and compel companies to pay their fair share.

Senator Carl Levin’s (D-MI) Cut Unjustified Tax Loopholes Act would close offshore loopholes by creating rules that would classify foreign subsidies controlled by US corporations as taxable. And the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), would also prevent companies from dodging taxes on offshore profits, and end tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas. Both bills have made little progress since introduced.

Find out more about inequities in the tax system through Americans for Tax Fairness, one of the groups seeking to put pressure on Congress, and by reading Joseph Stiglitz’s white paper, “Reforming Taxation to Promote Growth and Equity,” which also includes Stiglitz’s plan for reforming the individual income tax.

Learn more about the two bills in question, the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act and the Cut Unjustified Tax Loopholes Act

Call your Senator and demand that they say no to corporate lobbyists and take legislative action stop corporate tax dodging.