Make Corporate Tax Avoiders Pay

Enjoying record profits and taxpayer-funded bailouts as the economy slowly recovers from a financial crisis, nearly two-thirds of US corporations don't pay any income taxes, instead opting to abuse tax loopholes and offshore tax havens. 

According to this study from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, 83 of the top 100 publicly traded corporations that operate in the US exploit corporate tax havens.  Since 2009, America’s most profitable companies such as ExxonMobil, General Electric, Bank of America and Citigroup all paid a grand total of $0 in federal income taxes to Uncle Sam. Tax havens alone account for up to $1 trillion in tax revenue lost every decade, money that could be invested in K-12 education, colleges, public health, job creation, and hundreds of other worthy public programs.  


We could even give the Republicans their stupid $61 billion in program cuts, backfill all of the programs slated to be cut, and have still have $878 billion left over!

Fact Sheet

·    Bank of America is the largest bank and 5th largest corporation in America

·    Bank of America holds over $2.2 trillion in assets

·    In 2009, Bank of America earned a pretax income of $4.4 Billion

·    Bank of America received $45 billion in tax payer bailout funds in 2008 and 2009

·    Bank of America paid $0.00 (ZERO) federal income tax in 2009

·    Bank of America received at least a $1.9 billion tax benefit from the government in 2009

·    Bank of America took deductions of at least $2.1 Billion in 2009

·    Bank of America funneled its income through 115 foreign tax-haven subsidiaries.

Corporate Tax Avoidance

·    Two-thirds of all U.S. corporations do not pay federal income tax

·    25% of the largest U.S. corporations do not pay federal income tax

·    U.S. corporations avoid between $37 billion and $100 billion a year in U.S. taxes

·    President Obama has called for ending corporate tax loopholes during his campaign, in the 2010 State of the Union address, and the 2011 State of the Union address

·    Congress has not acted upon the “Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act.”

Local Impact

·    Corporate tax avoidance costs the District of Columbia up to $700 million per year

·    Congress has proposed cuts to D.C. services, including $150 million to public transportation, $25.2 million to courts, $15.4 million to education, and $10 million to water and sewer maintenance

·    District officials have frozen hiring, promotions and pay raises for all District employees in an attempt to save $100 million from this year’s budget

·    If corporations paid their fair share of taxes, none of these cuts and pay freezes would be necessary, and there would be up to $400 million left over.

Education Related Cuts

·    Congress has proposed a $5.7 billion cut to the Pell Grant program that will directly target lower income students who want a higher education

·    Congress has proposed a $1 billion cut to the Head Start program that will directly target lower income and poverty stricken children

·    Congress has proposed a $700 million cut to Title I grants that will directly target children in lower income school districts

·    College tuition has risen nearly 20% for students in just two years, making higher education unaffordable and saddling students with crippling debt.

If we pay our taxes, why don’t they?  If corporations profit here, shouldn't they pay here?  It’s time for ordinary Americans to fight back and demand an end to the corporate tax avoidance.  Let's make corporate tax avoiders pay.  Check out U.S. Uncut.