SEIU: "It's Time Everyone Pays Their Fair Share to Rebuild Our Economy"

May 11, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC-- "SEIU members wake up and work hard to put food on the table and strengthen their community while getting through a healthcare crisis, a housing crisis, a higher education crisis and the list goes on and on. At the same time, American businesses reap the benefits of millions spent on Washington lobbying with tax codes that allow them to shirk their responsibility to pay taxes and actually pay them to create jobs overseas instead of here in America," said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger.

"We are tired of businesses like Bank of America, AIG and Citigroup hiding billions in profits while collecting billions in bailouts. When a single building in the Cayman Islands is home to more than 18,000 offshore corporations, something has to stop. These are not our values; this is not the America we believe in. It's time everyone pays their fair share to rebuild our economy."

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Today, the U.S. Treasury Department released the 'Green Book' providing details on President Obama's budget proposals. The changes, outlined last week by the President, will close tax loopholes, change deferral rules and crack down on global financial institutions that may be hiding taxable U.S. income.

1. Replacing Tax Advantages for Creating Jobs Overseas With Incentives to Create Them at Home

The Obama Administration would remove tax advantages for investing overseas and would use the revenue to make permanent a tax credit for investment in research and innovation within the United States.

2. Closing Foreign Tax Credit Loopholes

The Administration would close loopholes that allow U.S. businesses that pay foreign taxes on overseas profits to claim a credit against their U.S. taxes for the foreign taxes paid.

3. Getting Tough on Overseas Tax Havens and Cracking Down on the Abuse of Tax Havens

President Obama aims to crack down on a range of tax-avoidance techniques by requiring U.S. businesses that establish certain corporations overseas to report them as corporations on their U.S. tax returns. U.S. firms that invest overseas would no longer be able to make their subsidiaries or the income they shift to them disappear for tax purposes. This would level the playing field between firms that invest overseas and those that invest at home.

Source: SEIU