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For Immediate Release
Thursday, June 6, 2002
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org
Fiscal Protectionism is Wrong Response to Inversions,
Lawmakers Instead Should Fix Tax Code
Companies should be allowed to flee bad economic policy
The following are statements by Andrew F. Quinlan, President of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, Daniel Mitchell, Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and Veronique de Rugy,
Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute, on Committee on Ways and Means Public hearing on corporate inversions:
Andrew F. Quinlan:
"Proposals to stop U.S. corporations from relocating to low-tax countries like Bermuda are driven
by misguided emotion. Politicians assume that an expatriating company will take jobs out of America and that the new foreign-based company will not pay any taxes to the U.S. government. Both of these assertions are
completely false.
"A broad coalition of free market groups already is working hard so that facts triumph over emotion and good economic policy crowds out bad economic policy. We need to fix our antiquated tax code, not
punish American shareholder, American taxpayers and American consumers." [Coalition for Tax Competition letter to Chairman Thomas attached]
Daniel Mitchell:
"Politicians should fix the tax code instead of blaming companies that are protecting the interests of
workers, consumers, and shareholders. Territorial taxation would allow US companies to compete on a level playing field and eliminate any tax reason to re-charter in another jurisdiction. Legislation to block
inversions, by contrast, is a reprehensible form of fiscal protectionism."
Veronique de Rugy:
"Expatriation helps U.S. workers and U.S. shareholders by allowing a firm to compete on a level playing
field with international peers, and lets a company's tax savings be reinvested for the benefit of the firm's shareholders."
Links:
Coalition for Tax Competition letter to Chairman Thomas
http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/press/p04-24-02/p04-24-02.shtml
CFP's Dedicated Web Page: Corporate Expatriation: Protecting American Jobs:
http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/corpexpat/corpexpat.shtml
For additional comments:
Andrew Quinlan can be reached at 202-285-0244, quinlan@freedomandprosperity.org
Dan Mitchell can be reached at 202-608-6224, dan.mitchell@heritage.org
Veronique de Rugy can be reached at 202-218-4601, vderugy@cato.org
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