Tax

On Feb. 3, 2017, the Senate voted 52-48 to scrap a rule designed to prevent oil companies from bribing foreign officials. Referred to as the Cardin-Lugar transparency provision, the rule required U.S.-listed drilling and mining companies including Exxon, Chevron and many others to publish details of their payments to governments across the world in return for rights to natural resources, with the goal of ending corruption. Fair Share's Nathan Proctor had this statement:

"We cannot tolerate a society where the rules only apply to some, but not the most powerful companies.

73% of Fortune 500 Companies used tax havens in 2015, dodging $717.8 billion in federal taxes in the process.

A new report, "Offshore Shell Games," by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy details how these companies hoard cash offshore. Collectively, multinationals reported booking $2.5 trillion offshore, with just 30 companies accounting for 66 percent of this total.

The cost to the tax payer is huge, with nearly $718 billion in dodged taxes.

There is a real cost to our communities when we allow a set of companies to play

The Clearing House Association—representing the world’s largest commercial banks—sent a letter to Congressional lawmakers supporting strong measures to crack down on the abuse of anonymous companies.  The group, which counts among its owners Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, explicitly endorses the bipartisan Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (H.R.4450, S.2489). (Via the FACT Coalition)

Fair Share has been working to close loopholes that allow anonymous companies.