Budget Debate includes Corporate Offshore Loopholes and Tax Avoidance

As the Budget Resolution debate begins, 100 diverse organizations, including The Presbyterian Church USA, Jubilee USA Network and various Catholic Religious Orders, expressed support to end corporate offshore tax loopholes in a letter to Senators. New estimates put the amount of lost revenue as high as $90 billion from corporate tax avoidance. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) amendment 264 to the Budget Resolution will create a reserve fund to reduce the deficit and create jobs by eliminating offshore tax abuse by large corporations.

"As people of faith, we believe our budget is a moral document that must end corporate tax avoidance," said Eric LeCompte, Jubilee USA Network Executive Director. "These offshore tax abuses take from the poor and place additional tax burdens on everyday Americans."

Due to the substantial loss of revenue, governments at all levels, here and around the world, cut programs and jobs that are critical to economic recovery and growth. "By closing these corporate tax loopholes we send a message around the globe that corporate tax avoidance is unacceptable whether in the developing or developed world," said LeCompte. More than half of all banking assets and a third of multinational company investments are routed through tax havens. It is estimated that for every $10 a country receives in development aid, $15 exits the country as a result of tax dodging. Corporations are operating in developing countries and robbing resources by using offshore tax havens to hide their money instead of paying their taxes.

"By addressing this behavior in the US, it sends a strong message that this kind of behavior worldwide is unacceptable. This is behavior that makes dodgy business practices the status quo and perpetuates the cycle of poverty around the globe," said LeCompte.

Jubilee USA Network supports the proposed Senate budget resolution by Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) that calls for $975 billion in revenues by closing loopholes and eliminating wasteful spending in the tax code that benefits the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.

Jubilee USA Network also supports these two pieces of legislation:

• The Cut Unjustified Loopholes Act (S.268) introduced by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), would close multiple offshore tax loopholes that would raise at least $190 billion over ten years
• The Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act (S.250), introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), would eliminate the ability of corporations to indefinitely keep profits offshore and raising nearly $600 billion over ten years