WASHINGTON – The Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund (ATFAF) today released a memo about the issue of tax fairness in the context of the 2014 Congressional elections. It is in part a response to an earlier memo by the RATE Coalition, an industry organization whose members include Walmart, FedEx, Verizon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Time Warner Cable and others, which recommends that candidates make tax reform – particularly a call for lower corporate tax rates – a central part of their 2014 campaigns.
ATFAF calls RATE’s campaign advice “dead wrong.”
The ATFAF memo shows that RATE’s recommendations would put candidates at substantial risk because polling demonstrates that voters are primarily concerned with making the federal tax system fairer and that Americans in fact oppose using savings from closing tax loopholes to lower rates on corporations and the wealthy.
A recent poll by Hart Research Associates reveals that voters overwhelming believe by an 82 percent to 9 percent margin that “reforming [ing] the tax system by closing corporate loopholes and limiting deductions for the wealthy” should be used to “reduce the deficit and make new investments” rather than to “reduce rates on corporations and the wealthy.”
The RATE Coalition offers no polling data in its memo to support its claim that voters want lower corporate income tax rates.
The Hart Research poll also shows that voters strongly favor by 62 percent to 36 percent “close [ing] loopholes that allow corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid paying U.S. taxes by shifting income to offshore tax havens.” Democrats, Independents and Republicans, as well as key demographic groups, also support this position.
“Voters clearly want a fairer tax system — not lower corporate tax rates,” said Frank Clemente, Executive Director of Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund. “Organizations that say otherwise are focused on their narrow self-interest – not on giving good advice to candidates or carrying out the wishes of the American people.”
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund (ATFAF) was founded on the belief that it is time for the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. It is a fiscally-sponsored project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a section 501(c)(4) non-profit organization. ATFAF should not be confused with Americans for Tax Fairness, which is a project of the New Venture Fund – a section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
###
For press inquiries, contact:
Contact: TJ Helmstetter, thelmstetter@americansfortaxfairness.org