Mike Levin: “I have joined with Senators Reid, Durbin, and Kennedy in introducing the Corporate Patriot Enforcement Act of 2003. Over…”

“I have joined with Senators Reid, Durbin, and Kennedy in introducing the Corporate Patriot Enforcement Act of 2003. Over the past several years we have been hearing more and more about U.S. corporations using offshore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share of U.S. taxes. One of the most egregious abuses is when a U.S. corporation reincorporates on paper in a tax haven and establishes a headquarters there when, in reality, its primary offices and production or service facilities remain right here in the United States. By opening shell headquarters in a tax haven like Bermuda, companies that got their start in this country, do most of their work here, and benefit from U.S. roads, banks, patents, computers, law enforcement, fair trade laws, its educated workforce, and much more, avoid contributing their fair share to pay for those benefits. Instead, these companies force the rest of America's taxpayers to shoulder the tax burden they have shed. This corporate conduct mistreats the average American. It undercuts the U.S. corporations that do pay their taxes. It is unfair, it is founded on a deception, and it is time for Congress to put an end to it.”