It was big “news” last week when the Dow Jones hit 40,000 for the first time ever.

As an aside, I’ll note how out of proportion the media’s obsession with the stock market is compared to its almost nonexistent coverage of corporate price gouging and tax dodging, along with other metrics that actually matter in people’s lives, like wage rates, health care coverage, and more.

But my point today is that Big Business is doing big business.

• Corporate profits are at record highs.

• Yet, in 2021, 19 Fortune 100 companies paid little to no federal income taxes — including AT&T, Bank of America, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Ford, General Motors, Merck, and Nike.

• AIG — you know, one of the “too big to fail” companies that set off the worldwide financial collapse of 2008 and got a $180 billion-with-a-b bailout from the federal government (i.e. the American taxpayers) — got a $216,000,000 refund in 2021.

• And, as the federal government itself reported, 34% — one out of three! — large, profitable corporations paid no taxes in 2018, the first year Donald Trump’s tax cuts went into effect.

This has to stop.

And while the Inflation Reduction Act created a new 15% minimum tax for very large companies, much more must be done to end the accounting schemes that allow multinational corporations to avoid paying taxes.

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Jan Schakowsky have introduced legislation that would force Big Business to pay its fair share.

The Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act would:

• Stop corporations from sheltering profits in tax havens like Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands.

• Roll back Donald Trump’s 2017 corporate tax rate cut.

• Eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

• Close loopholes that corporations exploit to pay little to nothing in taxes.

As Sen. Sanders notes, “We have a rigged tax code that has essentially legalized tax dodging for large corporations.”

Tell Congress to pass the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act without delay.

Click to add your name now.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 
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