April 16, 2009
Consumer Groups Applaud Plan to Close Off-shore Tax Havens
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Charleston, WV (HNN) – Tax Day 2009 – while some “Tea Parties” are showing their displeasure with taxes of any kind, two consumer research groups targeted big corporate tax dodgers as a way to reduce the tax burden on private citizens.
Major US corporations avoid as much as $100 billion a year in federal taxes by hiding profits in foreign countries. According to a US PIRG report at www.mserf.org released on Wednesday, April 15, 2009, this loophole results in over $250 million in additional tax burden for taxpayers here in West Virginia.
“President Obama wants to fix a tax code that has been carved and twisted by banks and corporations,” said Linda Frame, Research Director at MSERF. “Today should be the last Tax Day when high-priced accountants and secret, overseas, post office boxes are valued over hard work and accountability.”
More than 80 percent of the largest companies in the U.S. hide profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. These companies include American Express, A.I.G, Boeing, Cisco, Dow, Hewlett-Packard, J.P. Morgan Chase and Pfizer. In fact, more than 18,000 U.S. companies currently maintain a post office box in the same five-story building in the Cayman Islands to take advantage of the loophole.
Obama’s budget proposal, which is working its way towards final passage in Congress, recommends closing this outrageous loophole and giving additional tax relief to middle-class taxpayers
“The weight of these tax-dodgers is being carried by the rest of us and it is simply unfair,” Frame said. “The President has a long-term vision that ends wasteful corporate handouts and invests instead in the priorities of the ordinary taxpayer.”
U.S. PIRG, federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. For more information visit www.uspirg.org.
MSERF is a WV consumer research group with a focus on tax fairness, good government and civic engagement.
The full report is avaialble on the web page www.mserf.org
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Consumer Groups Applaud Plan to Close Off-shore Tax Havens
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Charleston, WV (HNN) – Tax Day 2009 – while some “Tea Parties” are showing their displeasure with taxes of any kind, two consumer research groups targeted big corporate tax dodgers as a way to reduce the tax burden on private citizens.
Major US corporations avoid as much as $100 billion a year in federal taxes by hiding profits in foreign countries. According to a US PIRG report at www.mserf.org released on Wednesday, April 15, 2009, this loophole results in over $250 million in additional tax burden for taxpayers here in West Virginia.
“President Obama wants to fix a tax code that has been carved and twisted by banks and corporations,” said Linda Frame, Research Director at MSERF. “Today should be the last Tax Day when high-priced accountants and secret, overseas, post office boxes are valued over hard work and accountability.”
More than 80 percent of the largest companies in the U.S. hide profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. These companies include American Express, A.I.G, Boeing, Cisco, Dow, Hewlett-Packard, J.P. Morgan Chase and Pfizer. In fact, more than 18,000 U.S. companies currently maintain a post office box in the same five-story building in the Cayman Islands to take advantage of the loophole.
Obama’s budget proposal, which is working its way towards final passage in Congress, recommends closing this outrageous loophole and giving additional tax relief to middle-class taxpayers
“The weight of these tax-dodgers is being carried by the rest of us and it is simply unfair,” Frame said. “The President has a long-term vision that ends wasteful corporate handouts and invests instead in the priorities of the ordinary taxpayer.”
U.S. PIRG, federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. For more information visit www.uspirg.org.
MSERF is a WV consumer research group with a focus on tax fairness, good government and civic engagement.
The full report is avaialble on the web page www.mserf.org
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