{"id":300388,"date":"2021-09-06T10:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=369029"},"modified":"2021-09-06T10:00:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T10:00:14","slug":"companies-lobbying-against-infrastructure-tax-increases-have-avoided-paying-billions-in-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/09\/06\/companies-lobbying-against-infrastructure-tax-increases-have-avoided-paying-billions-in-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Companies Lobbying Against Infrastructure Tax Increases Have Avoided Paying Billions in Taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"
An infrastructure proposal<\/u> that would raise the corporate tax rate is facing opposition in Congress from companies that have dodged tens of billions of dollars in taxes over the last decade. Several such companies are lobbying against corporate tax increases and measures designed to crack down on tax havens in President Joe Biden\u2019s economic proposal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Biden\u2019s American Jobs Plan would raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent to help fund projects to rebuild highways and roads, expand high-speed broadband, build and renovate schools, and expand and upgrade power lines. Meanwhile, his American Families Plan would allocate $1.8 trillion over 10 years for education, child care, and national paid leave. To help fund those programs, he <\/span>proposed<\/span><\/a> a 39.6 percent capital gains tax for millionaires \u2014 almost double the current rate of <\/span>23.8 percent<\/span><\/a> \u2014 and an increase in the marginal income tax rate for the top 1 percent, from 37 percent to 39.6 percent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Companies that use such practices to avoid taxes and lobbied earlier this year on issues related to tax rates in Biden\u2019s American Jobs Plan include Walmart, Oracle, Accenture, Bristol Myers Squibb, Shell, and Walgreens. Executives at companies that have historically avoided paying taxes, like <\/span>Johnson & Johnson<\/span><\/a>, JPMorgan Chase, FedEx, and DuPont, have spoken out publicly against Biden\u2019s proposed tax increases.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shell<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Walgreens<\/span><\/a> lobbied earlier this year on corporate tax issues in the American Jobs Plan. Walmart <\/span>hired<\/span><\/a> a lobbying firm tasked with \u201cmonitoring of tax proposals related to infrastructure\u201d in the plan and proposed legislative efforts related to Donald Trump\u2019s 2017 tax cuts. Accenture <\/span>hired<\/span><\/a> another firm to \u201cmonitor the American Jobs Plan as it relates to corporate taxes.\u201d <\/span>Oracle<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Bristol Myers Squibb<\/span><\/a>, a multinational pharmaceutical company, used the same firm hired by Accenture to monitor and lobby on similar issues in the proposal. Oracle also used that firm to <\/span>monitor<\/span><\/a> the American Rescue Plan, Biden\u2019s first Covid-19 relief package, for provisions related to corporate taxes. Oracle spokesperson Jessica Moore said the company \u201chas not lobbied on Corporate Tax issues since the new Administration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Nonprofit and media reports in recent years have found that those companies are among dozens of multinational corporations that have avoided tens of billions of dollars in taxes in recent years, and have used a variety of tax evasion mechanisms both in the U.S. and overseas, leading some to face fines and even criminal charges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A Reuters <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> last year found that from 2018 to 2019, Shell reported $2.7 billion through offshore tax havens and avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. In 2019, Australia charged Shell <\/span>$755 million<\/span><\/a> for six years’ worth of taxes the company did not pay. The company <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> that after getting tax refunds related to the closure of oil platforms, it paid no corporate income tax in the U.K. in 2018 on $731 million in profits. In 2013, India <\/span>alleged<\/span><\/a> that Shell had evaded taxes by underpricing a transfer of shares in 2009 by $2.8 billion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A 2016 <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Citizens for Tax Justice, and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that Bristol Myers Squibb held $25 billion across 23 tax haven subsidiaries. In 2012 the company set up a tax haven subsidiary in Ireland, which the IRS later <\/span>described<\/span><\/a> as an \u201cabusive\u201d tax shelter that could allow the company to avoid paying $1.4 billion in taxes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Between 2008 and 2014, Walmart held more than $23.3 billion in offshore accounts and avoided paying more than $4.59 billion in U.S. taxes, according to a 2016 Oxfam <\/span>report<\/span><\/a>. In an arrangement internally known as “Project Flex,” the company routed money through an allegedly fictitious Chinese subsidiary, Quartz <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a>, which allowed it to avoid paying $2.6 billion in U.S. taxes between 2014 and 2017. The 2016 <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> from the U.S. PIRG, CTJ, and ITEP also found that Walmart reported zero tax haven subsidiaries despite having as many as 75. A 2013 <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> from CTJ found that the company held $19.2 billion in profits in offshore tax havens and did not disclose the U.S. tax rate it would pay if that money were repatriated.<\/span><\/p>\n