U.S. House Passes Legislation to Close Tax Loopholes, Keep Jobs in the U.S.

Arizona PIRG

This Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act,” by a vote of 215 – 204. The Act, voted on in two parts, will curtail tax avoidance by multi-national corporations and lessen the incentive to move jobs overseas. The Act also taxes the income of investment fund managers as income and not at the 15 percent capital gains rate, which is the current practice.

Statement from Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of Arizona PIRG:

“These tax reforms couldn’t come at a more important or more appropriate time. This bill ends the practice of subsidizing Wall Street gamblers who get a tax break for getting up in the morning and doing their jobs. It changes a system that rewards corporations that move jobs and profits offshore. These are simple, common sense ways to simultaneously make the tax system fairer and help restore fiscal responsibility.

Corporations and fund managers want all the benefits of doing business here in the United States and all the benefits of government support and contracts, but few of the responsibilities. There is no real justification for these loopholes.

We applaud those Members of Congress who stood up to some of the most powerful special interests that have swarmed the Capitol.  Now the U.S. Senate has a critical decision to make: it can stand with taxpayers or it can shirk its responsibility.

It is hard to imagine anyone campaigning on protecting hedge fund managers, Wall Street banks and companies that ship jobs and profits overseas. It is hard to imagine telling constituents that somehow they should continue to subsidize these industries. We are anxious to see whose side the U.S. Senate is on and what story they want to tell the American people.”

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