Paradise Papers Expose Credibility Problem With Tax Reform

Below is a statement from Nathan Proctor, our National Campaign Director on tax and corporate transparency. On Sunday, the ICIJ announced the release of millions of documents which expose a number of tax avoidance schemes used by the wealthy and multinational corporations to avoid taxes. These revalations raise questions about the tax reform plans being debated by the U.S. House, in part because some of the influential policy voices are named in the leak, such as Gary Cohn. 

Paradise Papers reveal many of the complicated schemes multinationals use to game the system when it comes to tax. 

The Republicans claim their bill fixes these problems, but now we can see that many of the most influential policy voices on this bill are experts at exploiting offshore shell games. 

We must allow more time to analyze the impact of provisions around offshore tax dodging to be reviewed by the public and public interest advocates. We cannot accept these new provisions, written behind closed doors by the very people we are trying to hold accountable in the tax code, without that analysis. 

Even with just a couple days to review this bill, we have serious issues. Offshore profits will either be taxed at 5% or at most 10%, half the rate of smaller domestic businesses. And many of the provisions impacts have not been fully reviewed -- meaning that offshore rate could end up being lower. 

Our tax code must be a level playing field for business, and this bill fails that test. The Paradise Papers perhaps explain a bit of the reason why.