Tax-Dodgers And Their Lobbyists Put The Brakes Obama's Tax-Haven Crackdown: U.S. PIRG

When the Obama administration quietly shelved its proposal to raise $210 billion over 10 years by cracking down on U.S. companies that use overseas subsidiaries to avoid paying U.S. taxes, commenters hailed it as a victory for the business lobby.

Indeed. But the tax-loving folks at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group would like to emphasize that members of a group that led the fight against the administration's proposal, the Promote America's Competitive Edge Coalition, boast hundreds of subsidiaries in tax havens, spend millions contributing to campaigns and lobbying, and hold government contracts worth tens of billions of dollars.

"Money and influence-peddling is unfortunately the name of the game in Washington, D.C.," said PIRG's Lisa Gilbert, who co-authored the report with colleague Nicole Tichon. "However, in the case of offshore tax havens, corporations that play the game well clearly reap benefits that cheat American taxpayers."

The PACE Coalition consists of the combined membership of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (now 90 percent smaller), the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Foreign Trade Council. Twelve of the companies who've signed on to the group's recent letters to Congress landed on a 2008 Government Accountability Office report detailing the hundreds of subsidiaries held in tax havens by the 100 largest U.S. corporations.

That "dirty dozen," as PIRG calls them, have a combined 443 subsidiaries in tax haven countries like the Cayman Islands, and they spent $37 million lobbying last year and $33 million so far this year. Not to mention $6 million in campaign contributions to members of Congress.

Tichon and Gilbert (registered lobbyists themselves) want a dual fix: tax reform and campaign finance reform. Their report, titled "Who Slows the Pace of Tax Reforms?" is available here.

A spokeswoman for the PACE Coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Comments

[montestruc]

11:27 PM on 10/31/2009

Cheat is a strong word.

In the first place to a large degree the use of threats and bully boy tactics with governments of small nations to get them to change their own laws regulating financial transactions inside there own nation, in ways which are obviously against their own best interest, reeks of imperialism.

In the second place, on what *moral* basis do you tax people on the basis of money they own outside of the jurisdiction of this nation?

Fair share?? Oh what a whopper!! In order for a person to be seriously contemplating offshore banking or investment in order to avoid taxes you have to be in a tax bracket such that you are already paying far more than a "fair" share.

All this while the same people screaming about tax cheats are defending Obama for the Wall Street bailouts. Cry me a river buddy.

[Ron44]

02:47 PM on 10/31/2009

Anyone interested in a third party of liberal progressives????????????

[Ron44]

02:46 PM on 10/31/2009

Change we can believe in.................what a crock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[totaldisbelief]

11:58 AM on 10/31/2009

I'm surprised that you people are shocked at this. Do you realize how long this has been biz as usual?
the Average Working American is the only sap that "plays by the Rules"...no matter who is in Office.

[Mike Kilpatrick]

04:27 PM on 10/30/2009

Pardon but Tax-dodgers can't make Obama do anything.

[Carl Caroli]

04:06 PM on 10/30/2009

Ban all lobbyists and corporate campaign contributions. It's the only way we'll get our nation back.

[ten pounds]

06:10 PM on 10/30/2009

Well, just who is going to do that? This has to come from the people and most Americans are very apathetic and generally blame the other person's senator or congressman and not their own....it can only be done by an ammendment to the Consititution and that will never happen. Our system is broken and there is no realistic way to fix it....too bad, this country had such great promise, but it is turning out to be just another aristocracy and will eventually collapse as they all do.....into a dictatorship or worse....

[Senzasord]

07:42 PM on 10/30/2009

Not really. The Constitution allows both houses to make their own rules for their members. Since these campaign contributions create a criminal conflict of interest, the House and Senate would be within their rights to ban accepting such contributions. There is nothing in law that says a legislator must accept any contributions. If they don't recuse themselves from any and all participation on legislation that directly benefits their contributors, then they should be expelled from their respective houses. This can be handled as an internal matter that is out of the realm of the courts.

It can be done. All we have to do is insist on it.

[lazercat2008]

11:53 AM on 10/30/2009

You are not in control of your government. You could be if you quit thinking left and right and start voting for meaningful change. Only vote for candidates that do not take money from Corporations, PACs, out of state money, 501 and 527 non profits.

[JulieSA]

09:20 AM on 10/30/2009

test

[JulieSA]

09:19 AM on 10/30/2009

USPIRG is a fraudulent organization that abuses its employees.

"If you want to know why I am no longer a lefty, just read this series on MyDD about PIRG, the organisation that supervised my transition from ultraliberal to libertarian. I have never worked at any organisation, including the Catskills hotel that basically used foriegn temporary labour in sweatshop fashion, that treated its employees as shamefully as PIRG. People talk about workers being disposable, but no other business model I have encountered depends on its employees having an average tenure of two weeks, the better to funnel their lost wages up the hierarchy to god-knows-where. It's all there in the series, what happens to you if you threaten to make too much money: the paycheck mixups that all run in favour of PIRG and somehow can never be rectified, the sudden firings of people for having a bad day, the curiously malleable policies on things like sick leave and holiday pay, which ensure that no one actually ever collects same, the shamelessly llame pretexts for getting rid of the overly successful, and the deliberate assignments to bad turf in order to depress your wages and thus force you to quit, or if that doesn't work, give them an excuse to fire you."

http://www.janegalt.net/archives/009566.html

[Telemachus]

02:12 PM on 10/30/2009

Gosh, sounds like you really ha.te the messenger.

[Tim303]

03:50 AM on 10/30/2009

Greedy bar stewards.

[Dosadi]

08:02 PM on 10/29/2009

Nothing President Obama can do will influence the decision of the IRS. The IRS is still going after tax cheats in spite of the present administration. No one has control over the IRS, they relentlessly collect for the FED.

[TeeLolly]

12:32 AM on 10/30/2009

That's like saying that nothing Obama can do will influence Congress' decision on the public option ...

If he makes no effort to press for it, it's not going to happen if it is the least bit controversial.

[RadCenter]

12:15 PM on 10/30/2009

You're missing the point. These companies are not "tax cheats" under current law. Off-shoring their profits is perfectly legal. We need to change the law. That's what they just succeeded in preventing.

[Renee27]

05:29 PM on 10/29/2009

Hopefully after we get the public option passed, we need to focus our all of our attention on these a----- and getting laws passed that can prevent them from play Russian Roulette with our economy.

[SamKnause]

04:18 PM on 10/29/2009

I am ashamed and embarrassed for what this once great country has become. Greed is dragging us down in the ranks of everything that is important to U.S. citizens. We are number 37 in health care, we are number 9 in the best countries to live in, we are number 3 in global finance, our educational system in completely broken, and only the rich can afford college, we have no manufacturing base, we don't take care of our elderly or homeless, and our government is completely corrupt and have thrown us to the wolves. This country is a disgrace because of the damage greed and corruption has caused. All we are known for is warmongering. We have no right to advise any other country about how great democracy is, because we no longer have democracy. Corporations, banks, and Wall Street now own the United States of America.

[macaroni]

01:01 PM on 10/30/2009

Well said!

[ten pounds]

06:14 PM on 10/30/2009

That's true...every workd but the only the "rich" go to college..wrong...the middle class goes to college and takes out huge loans and become beholden to the corporations for life....it is our system...greed is indeed destroying this country...already has, actually....if I were younger I would leave, alas...I am not..

[dans5843]

03:45 PM on 10/29/2009

I bet this is not a done deal at this time.

[Hopeington]

03:32 PM on 10/29/2009

How many times does "cheat the American taxpayer" have to come up in a news article before we completely lose it and revolt.
How many of us could get away with "cheating our government" on our taxes?
I am very disappointed and utterly fed up with corporations getting what they want while we the people must continue to struggle.

[CLASSWARWELOST]

12:00 PM on 10/30/2009

Hard to talk revolution with Patriot Act , Carnivore and 16 intelligence agencies watching us. Everyone is afraid which is what they intended. The only ways is to start throwing out the corrupt ones. Or maybe a third real party for the people. I doubt they could get any media though. Kucinich was a real canidate and they simply cut him off. The dems and the media did that.

[Taleisha Wood-Collins]

03:41 PM on 10/30/2009

I think there is a better chance for a viable 3rd party today than there was 4 years ago. Look at how much the internet was a *player* in the last election... With YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. the MSM is less in control of the dissemination of information. More to the point, most of what I see on the nightly news, regardless of which network I am watching, I have already by 6pm read numerous articles, and blogs about throughout the day. The MSM just picks up on whatever the *hot* topic on the internet is for the day, and pretend as if they are doing real reporting.

A 3rd party candidate with a good website, effective participation in social media, and the ability to speak without sounding like a shill stands as good a chance as anyone these days. Given how fed up people are with the "bought and paid for" members of our government, I would hazard to say that a 3rd party is more likely now than at any other time in our political past.

We the people have to stop letting the media dictate what is topical, and who can and cannot run for office. It is not up to them to tell us... frankly, it is up to US to tell them. :)

Just a thought.. :)

[totaldisbelief]

11:42 AM on 10/31/2009

and They choked off Ron Paul as well.

[totaldisbelief]

11:41 AM on 10/31/2009

lock and load

[Hopeington]

10:41 PM on 10/31/2009

i can do that.