March, 09 2017, 10:30am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Clark Gascoigne,Phone: (202) 813-0290,Email:,cgascoigne@thefactcoalition.org
New Bill Takes Aim at Offshore Tax Avoidance
FACT Coalition Statement on the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act
WASHINGTON
Legislation introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Thursday takes aim at offshore tax avoidance by closing a number of loopholes in the tax code. The Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act was welcomed by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition), a non-partisan alliance of more than 100 state, national, and international organizations working toward a fair tax system that addresses the challenges of a global economy.
The bill was filed following the publication of a thorough analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) -- a member of the FACT Coalition -- revealing widespread tax avoidance by Fortune 500 companies in recent years.
Clark Gascoigne, the deputy director of the FACT Coalition, issued the following statement:
"The Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act offers a pragmatic, enforceable response to the problem of offshore tax avoidance -- a problem that costs U.S. taxpayers an estimated $135 billion per year. This bill ends the incentive to game the tax system without creating a litany of new problems and unintended consequences.
"In contrast, the recent House tax reform blueprint attempts to end the offshore gaming of the tax code but, in practice, it merely changes the nature of the gaming by incentivizing companies to shift the location of sales rather than the location of profits. It is a gift to creative tax planners.
"Instead of engaging in a fairly radical and untested policy exercise to upend the international corporate tax system, a better approach would be to fix and simplify the current one.
"The comparatively simple reforms in this legislation would curb the gaming of the tax code and ensure that wholly domestic and small businesses can compete more fairly with multinationals."
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition is a non-partisan alliance of more than 100 state, national, and international organizations working toward a fair tax system that addresses the challenges of a global economy and promoting policies to combat the harmful impacts of corrupt financial practices.
(202) 827-6401LATEST NEWS
Fetterman Joins Dems Calling for Menendez Resignation After Bribery Charges
"He's entitled to the presumption of innocence, but he cannot continue to wield influence over national policy, especially given the serious and specific nature of the allegations," the Pennsylvania senator said.
Sep 23, 2023
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"Sen. Menendez should resign," Fetterman said in a statement. "He's entitled to the presumption of innocence under our system, but he is not entitled to continue to wield influence over national policy, especially given the serious and specific nature of the allegations. I hope he chooses an honorable exit and focuses on his trial."
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Dismissing calls for his resignation, Menendez said he is "not going anywhere."
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Fetterman joins a growing list of Democrats calling on Menendez to resign. These include New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and U.S. Reps. Jeff Jackson (N.C.), Dean Phillips (Minn.), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Tom Malinowski (N.J.), Frank Pallone (N.J.), Mikie Sherill (N.J.), Bill Pascrell (N.J.), and Andy Kim (N.J.).
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It's not just Democrats urging Menendez to step down. The New Jersey Working Families Party issued a statement Friday calling the allegations against the senator "alarming" and asserting that Democratic Party leaders "are doing the right thing in calling for his resignation."
This is the second time Menendez has faced corruption charges in the last decade. He was indicted in 2015 for allegedly receiving gifts and $660,000 in campaign contributions from a Florida eye doctor; the case ended in a mistrial in 2017. The U.S. Justice Department subsequently declined to retry him.
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Last year, the Israeli government forcibly displaced more than 1,000 Palestinians from their homes in what many critics have called acts of ethnic cleansing. Hundreds more Palestinians have been displaced this year to make way for Jewish settler-colonists.
There have also been multiple deadly settler rampages through Palestinian towns this year, revenge attacks that a wide range of critics—from Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) to conservative U.S. Jewish groups and an IDF general—called "pogroms."
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"In this particular case, here's the audacity: Self-managed abortion is not even a crime in fucking Nebraska," said one rights advocate.
Sep 22, 2023
Amid a wave of right-wing efforts to quash abortion rights across the United States, a Nebraska judge on Friday sentenced Jessica Burgess to two years in prison after helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy and bury the remains in early 2022.
Police have said that over two years ago, then-17-year-old Celeste Burgess took abortion pills—provided by her mother—at approximately 29 weeks pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn fetus, which the pair burned and buried in Norfolk, Nebraska.
Celeste Burgess was sentenced to 90 days behind bars and released earlier this month. Tanner Barnhill, who pleaded no contest to attempting to conceal a death for helping with the burial, was sentenced to nine months of probation and 40 hours of community service.
Jessica Burgess, who took a plea deal, faced up to five years in prison. She pleaded guilty to providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, tampering with human remains, and false reporting. As Jezebelnoted, the 42-year-old was charged even though the state's 20-week ban that was in effect at the time applied to "licensed abortion providers, not people self-managing their own terminations."
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Nebraska is among several states that have tightened abortion restrictions since June 2022. In May, Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill banning abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the life of the pregnant person—a measure which has taken effect but that rights group are fighting in state court.
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Nebraska is one of multiple U.S. states where reproductive rights advocates are currently working to put a question on 2024 ballots regarding an amendment to the state constitution that would protect the right to abortion.
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