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Today, the Senate Finance Committee approved a package of provisions often called the “tax extenders” because they extend several tax cuts, mostly benefiting businesses. A new report from Citizens for Tax Justice identifies two of the “tax extenders” as particular problems, despite having arcane names that are unknown outside of the corporate tax world: the “active financing exception” and the “CFC look-thru rules.”
Read the report: Don’t Renew the Offshore Tax Loopholes: Congress Should Kill the “Extenders” that Let G.E., Apple, and Google Send Their Profits Offshore
These two temporary rules in the tax code — w
hich allow U.S. multinational corporations to park their earnings offshore and avoid paying tax on them — expired at the end of 2011. If Congress refuses to extend these expired provisions, many U.S. companies will have much less incentive to send their profits (and possibly jobs) offshore.
► The active financing exception and the CFC look-thru rules make it easy for U.S. multinational companies to move income to offshore tax havens and avoid paying U.S. tax.
► Income shifting by multinational corporations using offshore tax havens, including transactions facilitated by these two rules, cost the U.S. Treasury an estimated $90 billion per year in lost tax revenue.
Read the report for more details.