For Immediate Release
Friday, October 18, 2002
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org

CFP's Effort Pays Off
Misguided Corporate Inversion Legislation Dies in House

Washington, DC – October 18: The Center for Freedom and Prosperity's 10-month lobbying campaign against misguided anti-inversion legislation paid off Wednesday when the House of Representatives left town without imposing protectionist restrictions on the right to charter in jurisdictions with better tax laws.

"Everyone thought fiscal protectionism was an unstoppable train, so it is very gratifying that our hard work and effort paid dividends," said Andrew Quinlan, President of CFP. "We will have to re-fight this battle next year, but we continue to believe that we can prevail as more people became aware of the real issues."

As House Speaker Dennis Hastert said, "When you really look in depth, the reason we're losing people offshore is the inequity of our tax code as compared to our competitors overseas."

CFP's position on corporate inversion was conveyed to Capitol Hill through more that 75 meetings, hundreds of phone calls and thousands of e-mails.  Moreover, 20 of the country's largest and most influential free-market groups, participants in the Coalition for Tax Competition, joined forces in the educational battle. Writing on April 24^th to key lawmakers, they stated:

"American-based companies must pay tax to the IRS on income earned in other nations. This 'worldwide' system of taxing corporate income is very anti-competitive, causing many companies to give up their U.S. charters and instead become foreign-based companies….Lawmakers could take a number of steps to make the internal revenue code more competitive. The U.S. corporate income tax rate, for instance, is the fourth highest in the developed world. Lower tax rates would make America more attractive… Last but not least, Congress could junk 'worldwide' taxation and instead shift to a 'territorial' system that would tax companies only on their U.S. income.

Over the next several months, CFP will continue to fight for sound tax policy and begin to prepare for the coming deluge of new fiscal protectionism legislation in the 108th Congress.

October 17, 2002, CNN, GOP leaders pull controversial tax bill
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/10/16/house.heads.home/index.html

CFP Dedicated Web Page on Corporate Inversion
http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/corpexpat/corpexpat.shtml

Link to April 24, 2002, Coalition for Tax Competition Letter:
http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/press/p04-24-02/p04-24-02.shtml

Center for Freedom and Prosperity
P.O. Box 10882
Alexandria, Virginia 22310-9998
Phone: 202-285-0244
Fax: 208-728-9639
www.freedomandprosperity.org

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