Obama administration takes step to curb offshore tax dodging

On Wednesday June 29, the Obama administration's Department of Treasury issued new rules which require large U.S. multinational companies to report profits and taxes on a country-by-country basis.

This is meaningful progress in Fair Share's ongoing work to end offshore tax dodging.

These new rules mean that the IRS will collect and exchange tax information on a country-by-country basis, and will show them tax multinationals paid overseas (for companies making more than $850 million per yer). The more interesting aspect of course, are the taxes they didn't pay. We know that some large multinationals cook the books, making it appear to each country in which they do business that their taxes belong elsewhere. Now we can begin to untangle these webs and hold bad actors accountable.

In a global world when everyone is interconnected, the only way to ensure everyone plays by the same rules is to open doors of communication and work together keep the large companies honest. It evens the playing field for companies that don't hide their profits in elaborate multinational schemes, but have compete against other companies that do.

There are further steps we can take to strengthen this ruling -- for example, making this tax information available to the public. We must continue our efforts, but these new rules bring us one step closer to ensuring that everyone gets and pays their fair share and plays by the same rules.