Americans for Tax Fairness Urges Closing of Tax Loopholes Used by Corporations and the Wealthy

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Seizing on the Senate Finance Committee leaders’ invitation to their colleagues to tax reform ideas, Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), a coalition of 315 national and state organizations, today sent a letter to all 100 U.S. senators urging them in their submissions to the panel to push for much higher revenue by closing tax loopholes used by corporations and the wealthy.

The coalition argued in its letter that real tax reform should—in keeping with the Senate budget passed earlier this year—raise $1 trillion over the next decade to “meet our long-term fiscal challenges, reverse and prevent cuts to critical benefits and services, and make needed investments to strengthen our economy and create jobs”; all by ending special tax privileges enjoyed exclusively by multinational corporations and wealthy households.

“To their credit, Senators Baucus and Hatch have offered a ‘blank slate’ and invited their colleagues to help them write a whole new tax code,” said Frank Clemente, the coalition’s campaign director. “Senators should use the opportunity to wipe out the many special-interest tax breaks that riddle our tax code and prevent corporations and the wealthy from paying their fair share. That will ‘create a simpler, more efficient and fairer tax code,’ as proposed by the two senators, which will much better serve our nation.”

Noting that corporate profits are at a 60-year high while corporate taxes are at a 60-year low, ATF urged the end of tax rules that encourage huge corporations to hide profits and ship jobs overseas.  The letter specifically called for an end to “deferral,” which allows big companies to shield profits offshore virtually tax-free, costing society $600 billion over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.  The coalition also opposed a “repatriation tax holiday” and a “territorial tax system,” both of which it said would reward corporate tax dodgers, drain the Treasury and hobble the economy. 

Americans for Tax Fairness referred senators to its tax reform options paper, which details dozens of special tax deductions, credits and other giveaways for the wealthy and corporations that should be eliminated.