Small Businesses to Congress: Corporate Tax Breaks Don’t Create Jobs

Jun 17, 2011

A nationwide group of small businesses, executives and investors is imploring Congress to end corporate tax holidays and loopholes and retire the farce that trickle-down economic policies create jobs.

"There is simply no excuse for repeating a policy that's a proven failure," Business for Shared Prosperity says in a letter to Congress this week, specifically urging lawmakers to reject corporate pleas for "tax holidays" on profits held offshore.

"Too many corporations have turned their tax departments into profit centers," disguising U.S. profits as foreign profits to avoid taxes, the letter states. Now businesses want a "holiday" to bring the profits back tax-free, a scheme the Joint Committee on Taxation says would cost the U.S. Treasury $80 billion.

"In 2004, a corporate repatriation tax holiday was passed with the promise of stimulating domestic investment and creating jobs in the United States," the letter continues. "Instead, studies showed that the beneficiaries of the tax holiday used their repatriated earnings to give a huge windfall to corporate owners and shareholders — including many CEOs — in the form of stock buybacks and dividends."

Members of the coalition have been speaking out beyond the letter. John Costin, who runs a veneer business and is a leader in the Maine Small Business Coalition, said, "Tax cuts don't create jobs. Many of those who benefited from the last tax holiday laid off thousands of American workers while enriching their shareholders. We can't afford to make that mistake again."

Click here for the full letter.