What would Jesus Cut?
A Grassroots Call to Tackle Corporate Tax Dodging
by Chuck Collins 03-28-2011
Sojourners
Across the United States, there is a new movement emerging to dramatize the immorality of corporate tax dodging in the face of drastic budget cuts.
US UNCUT, inspired by a similar grassroots movement in England, has organized creative demonstrations at the branch offices of notorious tax avoiders. Their message is “America is Not Broke,” and “Pay Up, Corporate Tax Dodgers.”
On Saturday, February 26, there were more than 50 local demonstrations at branches of Bank of America, Federal Express, and Verizon. More demonstrations are planned in the weeks leading up to April 15 Tax Day.
“The seven dollars in my wallet,” said Carl Gibons, a US UNCUT cofounder from Mississippi, “is more than the combined amount of federal corporate income taxes paid by Fortune 500 headliners like Bank of America and Boeing. I pay more on my monthly cell phone bill than Verizon paid in taxes for the last two years.”
It is unseemly that state and federal governments are cutting deeply while profitable U.S. corporations pay no or low taxes, thanks to overseas tax havens and other loopholes. In the last few days, I’ve learned that Texas is closing rural community colleges, New Hampshire is eliminating vital mental health services, and Arizona is ending health care programs for thousands of low-income children. These cuts are what has given rise to the movement around “What would Jesus Cut?”
Meanwhile, Boeing Corporation earned $9.7 billion in profits over the last three years but paid no taxes. Yet they were just awarded a $35 billion federal contract. Between 2006 and 2010, General Electric reported a $26.3 billion profit to their shareholders, but paid no taxes to Uncle Sam. This was thanks to creative accounting and the use of offshore tax havens, where companies pretend to earn their profits, while deducting loses in the U.S.
(Continued here.)
by Chuck Collins 03-28-2011
Sojourners
Across the United States, there is a new movement emerging to dramatize the immorality of corporate tax dodging in the face of drastic budget cuts.
US UNCUT, inspired by a similar grassroots movement in England, has organized creative demonstrations at the branch offices of notorious tax avoiders. Their message is “America is Not Broke,” and “Pay Up, Corporate Tax Dodgers.”
On Saturday, February 26, there were more than 50 local demonstrations at branches of Bank of America, Federal Express, and Verizon. More demonstrations are planned in the weeks leading up to April 15 Tax Day.
“The seven dollars in my wallet,” said Carl Gibons, a US UNCUT cofounder from Mississippi, “is more than the combined amount of federal corporate income taxes paid by Fortune 500 headliners like Bank of America and Boeing. I pay more on my monthly cell phone bill than Verizon paid in taxes for the last two years.”
It is unseemly that state and federal governments are cutting deeply while profitable U.S. corporations pay no or low taxes, thanks to overseas tax havens and other loopholes. In the last few days, I’ve learned that Texas is closing rural community colleges, New Hampshire is eliminating vital mental health services, and Arizona is ending health care programs for thousands of low-income children. These cuts are what has given rise to the movement around “What would Jesus Cut?”
Meanwhile, Boeing Corporation earned $9.7 billion in profits over the last three years but paid no taxes. Yet they were just awarded a $35 billion federal contract. Between 2006 and 2010, General Electric reported a $26.3 billion profit to their shareholders, but paid no taxes to Uncle Sam. This was thanks to creative accounting and the use of offshore tax havens, where companies pretend to earn their profits, while deducting loses in the U.S.
(Continued here.)
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