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Iowa Citizen Action Network: Ames citizens hold tax day rally
4/16/2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Sue Dinsdale, Organizer

DATE: April 15, 2009 Iowa Citizen Action Network

515-277-5077 x 14 - Office

515-480-3240 – Cell

sdinsdale@iowacan.org

Nicole Tichon (U.S. PIRG)

202.546-9707

Iowans Rally in Ames for Budget Plan to

Close Off-shore Tax Havens for Corporate America

Report Showing How Much Outrageous Corporate Tax Loophole is Costing Iowa Taxpayers Released

Iowans Urge Grassley, Latham and other Members of Congress to Pass the President’s Budget Blueprint for Restoring Fairness to the Tax Code and Growing the Economy for the Rest of America Through Transformational Investments in Education, Healthcare and Clean Energy

AMES, IA – Residents from the Ames area gathered at the Post Office on Wednesday, April 15 to show their support for President Barack Obama’s plan to restore fairness to the tax code by closing offshore tax havens for large corporations.

Major US corporations avoid as much as $100 billion a year in federal taxes by hiding profits in foreign countries. According to a US PIRG report*, (www.uspirg.org) released at the event, this loophole results in over $722 million in additional tax burden for taxpayers here in Iowa.

“The weight of these tax-dodgers is being carried by the rest of us and it is simply unfair,” Steve Pelz, a small business owner from the Ames area said. “The truth is the proposed budget would close tax loopholes and help small businesses. True advocates of tax reform should be applauding this instead of holding gimmicky tea parties paid for by corporate lobbyists.”

Sue Dinsdale, an Organizer with Iowa Citizen Action Network commented, “We’ve seen a couple of so-called tea-parties here in Iowa. I would ask those organizers a simple question. If they are truly concerned about paying higher taxes, do they agree with us that it is outrageous that Iowa taxpayers are paying almost three quarters of a million dollars more in taxes thanks to these offshore tax havens for Corporate America?” Dinsdale continued, “And will they join with us today in calling on Congress to pass President Obama’s plan to make big corporations finally pay their fair share by shutting down these Corporate tax havens down once and for all?”

More than 80 percent of the largest companies in the U.S. hide profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. In fact, more than 18,000 U.S. companies currently maintain a post office box in one five-story building in the Cayman Islands to take advantage of the loophole.

The President’s budget proposal, which is working its way towards final passage in Congress, recommends closing this outrageous loophole and giving additional tax relief to middle-class taxpayers

“President Obama wants to fix a tax code that has been carved and twisted by banks and corporations,” Dinsdale remarked. “Today should be the last Tax Day when high-priced accountants and secret post office boxes are valued over hard work and accountability.”

The Iowa Citizen Action Network (ICAN) is Iowa's largest grass roots consumer and environmental watchdog organization, with more than 7,000 individual members across the state. ICAN is also an alliance of community, religious, labor, senior, farm, environmental and civil rights organizations - a coalition that is working together to raise the living standards and improve the quality of life for all people in Iowa.

U.S. PIRG, federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. For more information visit http://www.uspirg.org.

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