Close those loopholes.

Link: berniesanders.com/…

A detailed write-up of Bernie Sanders’ corporate tax reform plan was placed on Bernie’s site yesterday, so I thought that DK Berners might want to take a look. There are some pretty good details on it.

Firstly, Elizabeth Warren’s Principles for Corporate Tax Reform, which Bernie ascribes to, are highlighted:

First, though, that infrastructure post references Elizabeth Warren’s speech in which she laid out some criteria for evaluating the candidates’ plans. Summarizing: 1) Increase the share of revenue that corporations pay. … any “revenue neutral” plan leaves the country with too little money to fund basic services. 2) Level the playing field between small and big businesses. The business tax code is rigged against small businesses, making it harder for them to compete. 3) Promote investment and jobs in the U.S. Lower tax rates and loopholes for hiding profits overseas encourages more outsourcing of jobs and investment.

Bernie plans on rolling out a $1 TRILLION infrastructure proposal, paid for by the closing of loopholes in his plan. You can read the link for details, but I’ll summarize his primary components of his “Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act” that he introduced in the Senate before his Presidential run:

Sanders’ “Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act” Senator Bernie Sanders Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act is summarized in an April 14 Senate Budget Committee blog post, (Sanders is the ranking member of that committee.) 1) Ending the rule allowing American corporations to defer paying federal income taxes on profits of their offshore subsidiaries. This would immediately bring in up to $620 billion of federal tax revenue currently owed on “offshore” profits but deferred. (It would also make available in the US more than $2 trillion of corporate profits that have been kept offshore, which could be reinvested or distributed to shareholders.) Additionally, this would increase federal tax revenue by as much as $90+ billion each year thereafter. 2) Closing loopholes allowing American corporations to artificially inflate or accelerate their foreign tax credits. A current loophole allows corporations to claim foreign tax credits for taxes paid on foreign income even if that income is not subject to current U.S. tax. This closes that loophole. 3) Preventing American corporations from claiming to be foreign by using a tax-haven post office box as their address. This would stop American corporations from avoiding U.S. taxes by claiming to be a foreign company because they have a post office box in a tax haven country. Sanders’ bill says a corporation could not claim to be from another country if their management and control operations are primarily located in the U.S. 4) Preventing American corporations from avoiding U.S. taxes by “inverting.” In an inversion, an American corporation acquires or merges with a (usually much smaller) foreign company and then claims that the newly merged company is a foreign one for tax purposes — even though the majority of the ownership is unchanged and little or no personnel or operations have actually moved offshore. Under Sanders’ bill the U.S. would continue to tax such a company as an American corporation so long as it is still majority owned by the owners of the American party to the merger or acquisition. 5) Prevent foreign-owned corporations from stripping earnings out of the U.S. by manipulating debt expenses. This stops multinational corporations from loading up their U.S.-based corporation with debt to companies they own outside of the US as a way to shift profits out of the U.S. company. They make interest payments to the foreign companies, deduct it, and this reduces or wipes out their U.S. income for tax purposes. 6) Preventing large oil companies from disguising royalty payments to foreign governments as foreign taxes. U.S. oil and gas companies have been disguising royalty payments to foreign governments as foreign taxes in order to claim foreign tax credits. Sanders’ bill would stop this.

A TRILLION-DOLLAR infrastructure plan is exactly what this country requires, as it has been left to crumble over the past 20 years or so. This creates jobs, big-time, and provides America with the safe roads, bridges, and needed systems that have long been ignored.

Let’s do this.

VOTE BERNIE!