Questioning Corporate Behavior?!

Last Tuesday night JRLC's Statewide Organizer, Alison Killeen, gave testimony before the House Tax Committee in support of HF 3044 (Hornstein), a bill that basically attempts to close corporate loopholes, equalize treatment of domestic and foreign earnings, and address tax avoidance strategies. This is no wild-eyed, anti-corporate cause but rather a serious compliance issue identified and described in detail by the IRS. In describing the behavior of certain corporations IRS uses the term of art, "Tax Avoidance Schemes" and this bill makes an effort to stop them.

JRLC's interest in this issue is to identify some new revenue, under the framework of tax compliance, so that the Governor might accept it, and that we might use the revenues to stave off some of the more painful cuts to unemployed or poor individuals and families.

Not once did we, nor did any other testifier, suggest that Corporations were bad per se or doing anything illegal. We did raise the question of why hundreds of millions of dollars were escaping taxation because corporations were using tax schemes, such as paper-only foreign transactions.

Rep. Paul Kohls and Rep. Laura Brod took great umbrage, ironically, at something that was never said. Both gave speeches based on the assumption that we accused corporations of illegal behavior. After Rep. Kohls made the accusation, Rep. Brod repeated it, an echo-chamber right before our eyes. Check the audio tape--I did--and we never said such a thing. They either didn't listen or they needed to hear something else. And then, what's more, they turned their diatribes into a discussion of whether churches or religious organizations should be tax-exempt (they should read the state constitution!). It was legislative bullying at its worse and degraded our democracy.

(If you take the time to listen to the official committee tape, Alison's testimony begins at the 2:14:45 mark.)

Brian Rusche
Executive Director