WASHINGTON – Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) today reacted to the “tax extenders” legislation proposed by Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR), which will be considered during a committee markup Thursday.
The Chairman’s mark proposes to renew 45 expired tax extenders at a reported two-year cost of $67 billion. The package is expected to grow larger and more costly during the committee’s markup Thursday.
Frank Clemente, Executive Director of Americans for Tax Fairness, made the following statement:
“In poll after the poll the American public has been very clear – corporations should not get tax breaks that encourage them to shift profits and jobs offshore. Therefore, we are heartened that Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden has not proposed renewing the CFC Look-through Rule in his tax extenders bill, and hope that it will remain out of the final package. However, we are very disappointed that the much more costly Active Financing Exception is included. American families and small businesses should not have to subsidize giant corporations that specialize in tax avoidance.”
“It is also troubling how quickly senators appear to be able to work out a deal on tax extenders that are unpaid for and largely benefit corporations while spending months crafting an emergency unemployment benefits package that is paid for by cutting other spending. This double-standard should not stand.”
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 10-year costs of the CFC Look-through Rule to be $17.5 billion and the Active Financing Exception to be $62.5 billion. If Congress continues to extend the tax extenders indefinitely, the 10-year cost of the package – the time frame by which CBO calculates the cost of most legislation – would be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Americans for Tax Fairness and Public Campaign released a report earlier this week showing the massive corporate lobbying campaign that has been underway on tax extenders in general and on the Active Financing Exception (AFE) in particular. Among its findings:
- 1,359 lobbyists representing 373 companies and trade associations reported lobbying on the broad topic of “tax extenders.”
- Wall Street industries and corporations dominate lobbying on the AFE loophole
- 292 lobbyists representing 41 companies and trade associations lobbied specifically on the AFE
- General Electric lobbied more aggressively than any other corporation or trade association, employing the most lobbyists of any organization – 48 – to work on tax extenders and the Active Financing Exception
- Overall, for every $1 GE spends lobbying it gets $24 in tax refunds, based on its $130 million in lobbying expenses and tax refunds of $3.1 billion from 2008 to 2012.
Follow this links to find out about the CFC Look-through Rule and the Active Financing Exception.