Issue Position: Deficits, Taxes

Issue Position

Combating Tax Loopholes that Ship U.S. Jobs and Tax Dollars Offshore

I have been a strong advocate for closing tax loopholes that allow large corporations to avoid paying their fair share. In particular, the use of international tax games by multinational corporations is widespread and drains untold billions out of the Treasury. I have a strong record of introducing legislation to combat various international tax abuses. Most recently, I have introduced the Stop Tax Havens Abuse Act (HR 297), which would address a number of bad practices. This includes preventing corporations that are run from the U.S. from avoiding U.S. taxes simply by filing a piece of paper in a tax haven and claiming to be foreign or from trying to renounce U.S. citizenship for a lower tax rate. An egregious example of a corporation that has dodged its U.S. tax liability by moving offshore is Trans-ocean, the owner of the rig that exploded in the BP oil spill.

Targeting Hidden Spending Through the Tax Code

Like a traditional, direct expenditure, a tax expenditure removes money from the U.S. Treasury, but it does so indirectly by creating an exception to regular tax laws such as through a preference, credit, or deduction. Some groups that cannot justify Congress spending money directly are using the Tax Code to get these special benefits so they don't have to pay taxes on the same basis as the rest of us. I have been trying to put a stop to the unchecked growth of these tax breaks and to slow our growing National debt. I am concerned about spending--whether through the Appropriations Act or the Tax Code. We need to examine closely both types of expenditures to ensure that each is effective, efficient and truly necessary. As a small step in this regard, I authored a provision in priorlegislation extending expiring tax provisions that requires an evaluation of these provisions and have requested and released reports from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office on this spending through the tax code. You can view on these reports here. I have also spoken out against adding hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit to make corporate tax subsidies permanent.

Ending Taxpayer Subsidy for Multimillion Dollar Corporate Bonuses

Most Americans would probably be surprised to learn that multimillion dollar executive bonuses are currently tax write-offs. I am committed to this issue and have advocated for closing a major loophole in current corporate tax law by putting an end to unlimited tax write-offs on executive pay. Our current tax law has a perverse incentive for companies: the more you pay your executives, the less you'll pay in taxes. This bill says to the JP Morgan Chases of the world: You can choose to pay Jamie Dimon $20 million, in a year that his bank paid billions in penalties for wrongdoing; just don't expect the American taxpayer to pick up your tab. You can read more about this issue in this article on Ezra Klein's Vox.com.

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