March 19, 2013 |
A lobby group for more than 200 CEOs is launching a campaign to
reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent and loosen restrictions on
offshore tax havens,
reports The Hill.
“It’s time we reclaim America’s home court advantage by modernizing
tax policy in a fiscally responsible way so all U.S. businesses can
create jobs, innovate, grow, compete – and win,” Business Roundtable
resident John Engler said
in a press release.
The Business Roundtable’s announcement comes right off the heels of a
Wall Street Journal analysis revealing that
60 corporations shielded 40 percent of annual profits by collectively stashing $166 billion offshore in 2012. Also, a study by
PayUpNow.org shows 64 corporations paid
just over 8 percent in taxes from 2008 to 2012. Some of these companies are the same ones pushing for a 10 percent corporate tax cut.
Meanwhile, the CEOs pushing for lower taxes continue to pay
themselves exorbitantly, further widening the gap between corporate
heads and regular Americans. The
New York Times reports
that CEO pay rose five percent last year, during a time of “stubbornly
high unemployment and declining wealth for many ordinary Americans.” And
in 2011,
AFL-CIO notes that S&P 500 executives “made, on average, 380 times the average wages of U.S. workers.”
Last week, President Obama convened closed-door meetings with
Republican lawmakers to discuss stand-alone corporate tax reform.
Reuters
reports that Obama told Republicans he’d support a revenue-neutral corporate tax reform plan.
"If he's agreed, and he has, that the lowering of rates with the
corporate tax will be revenue neutral, there's no reason we can't do
that now," Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) told Reuters.
But other Republicans and pass-through organizations that pay the 40
percent individual tax rate want a complete overhaul, rather than just
stand-alone corporate tax reform.
“To us, tax reform means comprehensive. That means corporate,
individual and pass-through,” Brian Reardon, executive director of the S
Corporation Association
told The Hill. “In our experience, the vast majority of the business community is united around that idea.”
While businesses and lawmakers continue debating reduced taxes for corporations and the wealthy, low-income Americans
brace for oncoming sequester cuts to food and housing programs.
Steven Hsieh is an editorial assistant at AlterNet and writer based in Brooklyn. Follow him on Twitter
@stevenjhsieh.
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