Coalition for Tax Competition

Posted on August 7, 2010 by CF&P

What is the Coalition for Tax Competition

The Coalition for Tax Competition is bringing scores of policy experts to the cause of tax competition. Our coalition partners represent millions of contributing individuals, work with members of Congress and legislators in all 50 states as well as international politicians and reach hundreds of millions of taxpayers worldwide through their respective media programs.

The Coalition for Tax Competition now includes more than 35 influential organizations around the world. The CTC coordinates the resources of free-market organizations that produce research, work with policymakers, and inform the general public on matters pertaining to tax competition, financial privacy and fiscal sovereignty.

Why is the Coalition needed?

Because it is increasingly possible for people to shift their economic activity across national borders, governments face pressure to reduce tax rates in order to keep investment and entrepreneurial talent from moving to lower-tax environments. This is what is known as tax competition and it is an important check on excessive government.

High-tax nations, not surprisingly, want to stop tax competition. Working through the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN), and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), these countries are seeking to dictate tax policy around the world in order to protect themselves from competition. The OECD, UN, and EU all believe that high-tax governments should have the right to tax income earned in low-tax jurisdictions.

The international bureaucracies are wrong. Competition, privacy, and sovereignty are inherent features of a free society. When governments collude, taxpayers lose. This is why tax competition between countries should be celebrated, not persecuted.

Consider what happened, for instance, when President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dramatically reduced income tax rates about twenty years ago: Every other industrialized nation was forced to lower tax rates. In most cases, this was not because politicians wanted to increase economic freedom. Instead, they felt compelled to make these changes because investment and entrepreneurial talent was flowing to the United States and the United Kingdom.

Fortunately, the international bureaucracies have no power to impose their tax harmonization agendas. A global tax cartel will not work so long as key nations do not participate – particularly the United States. This is why the Coalition for Tax Competition has mounted an effective education campaign designed to help U.S. lawmaker understand why the OECD, EU, and UN agendas are contrary to America’s national interests.

The international bureaucracies’ campaign against tax competition is ill-advised for a number of reasons. For instance, it is:

An Attack on Taxpayers. The OECD is trying to create a cartel of high-tax nations. This arrangement – sort of an OPEC for politicians – would mean higher taxes and undermine any hope for meaningful tax reform.
An Attack on Free Trade and Global Commerce. The OECD urges member nations to penalize low-tax regimes with severe and discriminatory financial protectionism. In effect, the OECD wants to impose a financial blockade against targeted nations.
An Attack on Sovereignty. The OECD not only is trying to bully “tax havens” into raising their tax rates and eliminating financial privacy, but also asserts the right to interfere with American tax laws. Sovereign nations should be able to determine their own tax policies.
An Attack on Privacy. An implicit feature of the OECD campaign is that governments should be allowed to tax income and activities that take place outside their borders. This means that privacy will be sacrificed to make life easier for tax collectors. Moreover, governments want to force financial service companies and professional service providers to spy on their customers to help track down additional tax revenue.

A list of organizations affiliated with Coalition for Tax Competition is listed below. The list is followed by a summary of the 10 coalition letters sent to the President and Members of Congress:

For more information, or to join the Coalition, please contact us at ctc@freedomandprosperity.org.

Organizations affiliated with Coalition for Tax Competition


American Enterprise Institute		The Heritage Foundation
American Legislative Exchange Council		Independent Women’s Forum
Americans for Tax Reform		Institute for Policy Innovation
American Shareholders Association		IRET
Association of Concerned Taxpayers		National Center for Policy Analysis
Capital Research Center		National Retail Sales Tax Alliance, Inc
Cato Institute		National Small Business United
CF&P Foundation		National Tax Limitation Committee
Citizens for a Sound Economy		National Taxpayers Union
The Club for Growth		The Performance Institute
Coalition for Tax Competition		The Potomac Foundation
Coalitions for America		Privacilla.org
Competitive Enterprise Institute		Public Interest Institute
Council for Citizens Against Gov’t Waste		60 Plus Association
Discovery Institute		Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
Empower America		Southeastern Legal Foundation, Inc.
Free Congress Foundation		The Sovereign Society
Freedom Alliance		United Seniors Association
Frontiers of Freedom Institute		U.S. Chamber of Commerce

For more information, or to join the Coalition for Tax Competition, please contact us at ctc@freedomandprosperity.org.

Coalition for Tax Competition

Organizations affiliated with Coalition for Tax Competition

Coalition Letters & Statements

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