[Vision2020] Stop corporate tax dodging

[Tina Cunningham]

To all.....
Ralph Nader will be speaking at Beasley tomarrow night
at 7:30pm.  
Because of this, I have attached the latest newsletter
from Citizen Works, which he is a part of.  Some
interesting topics of interest.....and we wonder why
our government has little money to help us.

Tina Cunningham
Moscow


--- Citizen Works <news@citizenworks.org> wrote:
> Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 14:47:06 -0400
> From: Citizen Works <news@citizenworks.org>
> To: news@mlm.citizenworks.org
> Subject: Stop corporate tax dodging
> 
> Dear Citizen:
> 
> Most Americans paid their taxes yesterday. We trust
> that most paid them 
> honestly - that they did not, for example, hide
> millions of dollars in 
> tax shelters or reincorporate themselves in an
> offshore tax haven.
> 
> Unfortunately, while most citizens are paying their
> fair share, 
> corporations are not. As countless articles and
> analyses have detailed 
> (see, for example Business Week's recent special
> report, "The Corporate 
> Tax Game" 
>
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_13/b3826058.htm
> ), big 
> corporations are using increasingly complicated
> schemes to avoid paying 
> taxes, dedicating armies of lawyers and accountants
> to puncture every 
> loophole in the tax code and hiring lobbyists to
> write new ones.
> 
> Perhaps the most egregious tax dodge is the growing
> number of U.S. 
> corporations who have reincorporated in offshore tax
> havens, a paper 
> transaction that can potentially save hundreds of
> millions worth of 
> taxes. (See
>
http://www.citizenworks.org/corp/tax/taxdodgerslist.php
> for 
> a list). Large corporations have also exponentially
> increased their use 
> of offshore tax haven subsidiaries in recent years,
> as Citizen Works has 
> documented (see
> http://www.citizenworks.org/corp/tax/top25.php )
> 
> As a result of this and other forms of tax
> avoidance, last year 
> corporations paid 10.5 percent of taxes collected by
> the IRS, compared 
> to 16.4 percent in 1973, according to the New York
> Times. In 1940, 
> corporations paid roughly half of all taxes. Though
> officially taxed at 
> 35%, corporations actually pay only about 20% of
> their income in taxes.
> 
> What this means is that more and more of the tax
> burden is falling on 
> the shoulders of individual taxpayers. And yet, less
> money is going to 
> pay for the social services that likely benefit them
> most, such as 
> education, healthcare, environmental protection, and
> other programs that 
> always seem to be the first to fall. In Oregon, for
> example, budget 
> cutbacks have forced the state to lay off teachers
> and shorten the 
> school year. Such are the indirect consequences of
> corporate tax avoidance.
> 
> Meanwhile, many of same companies that are
> incorporated offshore 
> continue to receive multi-million dollar government
> contracts. 
> Bermuda-based Accenture, for example, has a
> five-year deal to redesign 
> the IRS website.
> 
> 
> We encourage you to do something to fight back.
> 
> 1.    GET EDUCATED: Citizen Works has prepared a
> briefing paper on 
> corporate tax avoidance, "Sacrifice is for Suckers"
> available at: 
> http://www.citizenworks.org/corp/tax/taxbreif.php
> 
> 2.    CALL OR WRITE YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS: The best
> legislation that 
> addresses this problem is the Corporate Patriot
> Enforcement Act (HR 737 
> in the House/ S 384 in the Senate), which would
> close the loophole that 
> allows U.S. companies to reincorporate in offshore
> tax havens and save 
> tens of millions a year in taxes.
> 
>       To contact your senators -
> http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
>       To contact your representative -
> http://www.house.gov/writerep
> 
> Moveon.org is coordinating a letter-writing campaign
> on this issue. See 
> http://www.moveon.org/news/1292.html for more      
> information.
> 
> Working for Change also has a letter-writing
> campaign. See 
>
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=14796
> 
> Also check out the Bermuda project at
> http://www.thebermudaproject.com
> 
> 3. EDUCATE OTHERS: Citizen Works' has prepared a
> fact sheet on Corporate 
> Tax Traitors. To download the fact sheet, visit: 
>
http://www.citizenworks.org/corp/tax/tax_dodger_fact_sheet.pdf
> 
> Keep up the good work,
> Your friends at Citizen Works
> 
> ----------------
> 
> For more information about Citizen Works, please
> visit 
> http://www.citizenworks.org .
> 
> For any questions regarding this list, please email
> news@citizenworks.org.
> 
> To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email
> to
> news-unsubscribe@mlm.citizenworks.org.
> 
> 
> 


=====
"Would you not like to be.....sittin on top of the world with your legs hanging free....."  **Dave Matthews Band

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