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John,
When billion-dollar corporations rake in massive tax breaks, they don’t re-invest that money in their workers. ATF research shows that, instead, they shower their executives and wealthy shareholders with stock buybacks, dividend payments, and outrageous compensation packages.
But, right now, corporate lobbyists are applying maximum pressure on Congress to pass a tax package by the end of the year that would cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue. That’s money Congress should be using to invest in working people, not wealthy CEOs and shareholders.
Last week, we sent tens of thousands of messages to Congress telling them to reject corporate tax handouts in an end-of-year tax package. We’re up against high-priced Wall Street lobbyists who will not quit in their attempts to rig the tax code to benefit the rich and powerful.
Through both grassroots activism and in-person lobbying, we defeated this same corporate tax package one year ago.
Rush a donation today to power our campaign and demand Congress put working people, children, and families first, not the wealthy and billion-dollar corporations.
Two of the tax breaks that corporate lobbyists are fighting for are:
Extending 100% Bonus Depreciation, which would allow corporations to immediately write off the full cost of assets that hold their value a long time. Cost = $325 billion over 10 years.[1]
Corporations claim that without this tax break, they’d be forced to roll back business investments, but when Google received this tax break between 2018 and 2022, they instead spent $168 billion on stock buybacks while paying their top 5 executives $1.1 billion in compensation packages. And they’re not alone!
From Bank of America to Facebook to PepsiCo, the story is the same: corporations use massive tax breaks to further enrich CEOs and wealthy shareholders, not invest in workers.
The other tax break is expanding the Net Interest Deduction to allow corporations to deduct a bigger share of their interest costs by changing how the deduction is calculated. Cost = $200 billion over 10 years.
This deduction gives greedy private equity firms taxpayer money to bankrupt companies and harm our communities. The most recent example is private equity firm Cornell Capital driving the maker of Pyrex and Instant Pot kitchenware into bankruptcy just two years after forcing the company to take out big loans to fund a $245 million debt-financed payday to Cornell.[2] Other examples include Toys “R” Us, Payless ShoeSource, J.Crew, and NineWest, which were all forced to file for bankruptcy after takeovers by private equity firms.
Instead of handing billions of dollars to profitable corporations at a time when right-wing members of Congress are demanding deep cuts to critical services like healthcare, nutrition, and housing, Congress should be investing in children and families.
Rush a donation today to fight back against a tax package that further enriches corporations and the wealthy, and demand Congress instead invest in programs like the expanded Child Tax Credit that can lift millions of children out of poverty.
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Our inside-outside game of in-person lobbying backed up by grassroots activism is part of our winning strategy that has defeated bad tax packages in the past. Thank you for being a critical member of our team.
David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund
[1] True Cost of Full Expensing Tax Break Masked by Temporary Extension
[2] Familiar tale of private equity and debt lands Instant Pot, Pyrex maker in bankruptcy
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