Center for Freedom and Prosperity
For Immediate Release
Thursday, May 12, 2016
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org
Coalition For Tax Competition Letter Urges Congress to
Defund the OECD, Oppose BEPS
(Washington, D.C., Thursday, May 12, 2016) Led by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P), a coalition of 20 influential free market and taxpayer advocacy organizations sent a letter today calling on members of Congress to stop funding the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its work against taxpayer’s interests.
Link to the letter: http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/files/OECD/ctc-OECDFundingBEPS-2016-05-12.pdf
Drawing particular attention to the recently finalized recommendations on so-called Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), the letter makes clear that the OECD does not advance American interests:
“The OECD has long worked to undermine tax competition, which high-tax nations view as an obstacle to new revenue grabs. To this end the organization directs economic and social pressure against low-tax jurisdictions or those that value individual privacy, violating their fiscal sovereignty.
Reducing tax competition results in an overall higher tax environment and a weaker global economy. Without the checks on political greed that competition affords, taxpayers inevitably suffer.
With the BEPS project the OECD has taken this agenda to a new level and targeted American corporations for a massive tax grab. Onerous and excessive new reporting requirements also put trade secrets unrelated to tax assessment into the hands of unscrupulous governments and makes proprietary data vulnerable to unauthorized access by third parties.”
CF&P President Andrew Quinlan commented, “The OECD is no friend to the United States. For years we have warned that their high-tax demands will never be sated. Now we see that, even as the fallout from BEPS is still being measured, the OECD is already discussing new ways to impose burdens on Americans and the global economy.”
Cato Institute Senior Fellow and CF&P Chairman Dan Mitchell added, “Americans supply more of the OECD budget than any other nation, yet the Paris-based organization consistently works against our economic interests. It makes no sense to continue funding the tax-free salaries of European bureaucrats intent on inflicting maximum pain on American businesses and taxpayers.”
The Center for Freedom & Prosperity is a Washington, DC based think-tank dedicated to promotion of tax competition, financial privacy and fiscal sovereignty. Since its founding in 2000, CF&P has led the opposition to the OECD’s ongoing war against tax competition, from its “Harmful Tax Competition” paper, the blacklists and bullying of low-tax jurisdictions, its efforts to eliminate financial privacy, and now its BEPS tax-grab against U.S. businesses.
The coalition letter was signed by:
Andrew Quinlan ~ President, Center for Freedom & Prosperity
Grover Norquist ~ President, Americans for Tax Reform
Pete Sepp ~ President, National Taxpayers Union
Phil Kerpen ~ President, American Commitment
Iain Murray ~ Vice President, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Seton Motley ~ President, Less Government
Tom Schatz ~ President, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
Karen Kerrigan ~ President, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
David Williams ~ President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Amy Frederick – President, 60 Plus Association
Heather Higgins ~ President, Independent Women’s Voice
Bob Bauman ~ Chairman, Sovereign Society Freedom Alliance
Sabrina Schaeffer ~ Executive Director, Independent Women’s Forum
J. Bradley Jansen ~ Director, Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights
Lew Uhler ~ President, National Tax Limitation Committee
George Landrith ~ President, Frontiers of Freedom
Norman Singleton ~ President, Campaign for Liberty
Tom Giovanetti ~ President, Institute for Policy Innovation
Andrew Moylan ~ Executive Director, R Street Institute
Andrew Langer ~ President, Institute for Liberty
For additional comments:
Andrew Quinlan can be reached at 202-285-0244, andy@freedomandprosperity.org
Brian Garst, Dir. of Policy and Communications, can be reached at bgarst@freedomandprosperity.org
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