The following is a statement of Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, on the announcement of the Inflation Reduction Act by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin:

“This agreement is a big deal and a big win for the American people. A 15% minimum tax on the biggest corporations will end the scandal of them going tax-free some years. The boost to IRS funding will pay for itself many times over as the agency more effectively cracks down on rich tax cheats. Medicare will finally be allowed to bargain down some exorbitant drug prices, saving seniors and taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Millions of lower-income Americans will receive three more years of access to affordable healthcare. It will seriously address the accelerating climate crisis that threatens our communities with fires, floods and droughts. And a notorious tax loophole for rich money managers will at long last be closed. 

“The proposed 15% minimum tax on profits the nation’s largest corporations report to their investors is long overdue when the likes of Amazon, FedEx and Nike can pay little or nothing in federal income tax year after year despite boasting of billions of dollars in earnings to Wall Street. This tax reform was the single biggest revenue raiser in the Build Back Better Act passed by the House last year, bringing in over $300 billion over 10 years. Historically, big drug corporations have been both price gougers and tax dodgers—by reigning in prices while curbing corporate tax dodging this agreement attacks both ends of Big Pharma’s classic rip-off of the American people. 

“Billionaires and other ultra-rich people have also been ripping off average Americans by illegally evading billions of dollars they owe in taxes every year. The richest 1% are responsible for almost 30% of tax evasion, costing in one recent year over $160 billion in revenue. Because of years of calculated Republican budget cuts, the IRS lacks the resources to catch rich tax cheats: funding and staffing are each down by at least 20% over the past decade. As a direct result, audits of corporations are down by over half and of millionaires by almost three-quarters. The agreement’s proposed boost to IRS enforcement will raise almost $125 billion over 10 years, a good first step towards making the rich and corporations pay what they owe.”