A new U.S. television ad campaign will target companies that move their headquarters offshore, at least on paper, in an effort to trim their U.S. tax bills.
The ads cut between images of soldiers fighting in Iraq CEOs using cash to light cigars and pictures of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. At the end, the announcer on the 30-second spot intones: “We’re doing our part to support our brave men and women overseas. Why don’t they?”
The ads, to be broadcast in three markets over the next week, are aimed at jump-starting legislative efforts to crack down on such companies.
The ad is to be formally unveiled at a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday, along with legislation to stop so-called corporate “inversions,” where a company will claim a low-tax jurisdiction, such as the Bahamas or Bermuda, as its new headquarters, at least on paper. The actual headquarters and staff will remain in the “old” headquarters city, but the company can slice their U.S. tax bill.
Congress considered legislation to stop inversions last year but ultimately took no action.
Author and syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington said the issue symbolizes the “injustice and unfairness that is going on at the moment.”
Why should a nation at war, she asked, allow corporations to defraud U.S. taxpayers?
“We definitely need a spirit of shared sacrifice,” she said.
The ads are sponsored by The Bermuda Project, which also includes MoveOn.org, Working Assets, the Campaign for America’s Future and Taxpayers For Common Sense.
Robert Borosage, co-director with the Campaign for America’s Future, said the ads are aimed to getting the White House to let Republican leaders allow a vote on anti-inversion legislation. The ads will air in the home districts of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and in the Washington, D.C., area, with the first ads to hit the air on April 10..
The Treasury in the Bush administration has generally taken a cautious stand on the issue, acknowledging that inversions are a growing problem but also saying they were symptomatic of deeper problems in the U.S. tax code.
By Jonathan Nicholson, Reuters
