More than 50 Organizations Urge Congress to End the Tax Preference for Shifting Jobs and Profits Offshore

Today, more than 50 national organizations sent a letter urging members of Congress to co-sponsor the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act, which would overhaul the new international tax system put in place by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to ensure that multinational corporations are no longer allowed to pay a lower tax rate on their offshore profits than they pay on their domestic profits.

The legislation is originally introduced by Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

As the letter explains, "This bill would provide a simple, straightforward fix to one of the most egregious problems created by the TCJA. It would level the playing field for small and wholly domestic businesses by eliminating the deep discount that multinational companies get for shifting profits offshore and outsourcing jobs.

"The Trump-GOP tax law continues to encourage corporations to shift enormous profits offshore and outsource good-paying American jobs. The No Tax Cuts for Outsourcing Act should allow us to recover hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate taxes owed on those profits, which can be invested to create good jobs at home," said Frank Clemente, executive director, Americans for Tax Fairness.

"This bill ends the backward incentives created by the new tax law to move jobs, profits, and operations overseas. The simple fix -- to even up the rates -- levels the playing field for domestic companies and reverses some of the worst damage caused by the new law," said Gary Kalman, executive director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition.

"The No Tax Cuts for Outsourcing Act provides a comprehensive and much-needed reform of the international tax code. It would go a long way to cleaning up the mess created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and stop offshore tax avoidance in its tracks," said Alan Essig, executive director, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

A diverse range of organizations signed the letter--from the AFL-CIO to Small Business Majority, from MomsRising to The Arc of the United States, from the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd to Patriotic Millionaires.

For more details on the legislation read the summary from Senator Whitehouse and Representative Doggett or a blog post from ITEP.