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Latest NEWSBRIEF from the USG-USIG JPIC Commission March 6th, 2014
The Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation USG/UISG Secretariat has issued their Newsbrief for February 2014. The newsletter is available in English. The Spanish version will be forthcoming.
Useful resources are given for Lent and other occasions, including World Water Day, coming up on March 22nd. (Download PDF)
The Inequality Debate Heats Up! February 14th, 2014
What started out as a slogan that surfaced at the height of the Occupy movement — the 1 percent vs the 99 percent — has morphed into the hotly debated issue of inequality, especially income inequality. Across a broad spectrum ranging from Pope Francis to billionaire Tom Perkins, a variety of reflections, analysis, explanation and apologies have been offered.
The executive director of the International Monetary Fund, Ms. Christine Lagarde, entered the conversation at the macroeconomic level when she stated recently at Davos, “The gap has been widening tremendously, particularly over the last ten years and it has widened in all corners. You look at the U.S. economy. You look at the Brazilian economy. You look at some of the developing countries although to a lesser degree, but it does… that inequality has expanded.”
Read Fr. Seamus Finn’s latest blog on Huffington Post….
Oxfam Releases “Good Enough to Eat” Index January 22nd, 2014
Last week the global hunger and development organization Oxfam released their Good Enough to Eat index. This informative resource assesses food security, food quality, affordability, and dietary health across 125 countries.
Number 1? The Netherlands. Last Place? Chad.
We feature this item in the spirit of the Caritas call for “One Human Family, Food for All” and our own effort to better understand chronic world hunger.
Thanks to National Catholic Rural Life Conference for this information. Learn more about NCRL and subscribe to their e-newsletter.
FACT Coalition Calls on Congress to Eliminate Corporate Tax Loopholes January 21st, 2014
The Missionary Oblates recently joined other organizations working through the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition in asking Congress to eliminate corporate tax loopholes. The coalition is concerned about corporations shifting jobs overseas, and corporate avoidance of US taxes. The letter calls on Congress to “refuse to extend two recently expired tax breaks that subsidize highly profitable corporations at the expense of ordinary Americans.”
These tax breaks perversely encourage “American corporations to lend, invest and create jobs in foreign countries rather than in the U.S.” The ‘active financing exception’ called out in the letter is one of the primary reasons General Electric has paid, on average, only a 1.8% effective U.S. federal income tax rate over the past ten years. This exception was removed in the tax reform of 1986, but reinstated after fierce corporate lobbying. It has been extended consistently since 1998. “The last two-year extension of the active financing exception was estimated by the Joint Committee on Taxation to have cost taxpayers $11.2 billion.”
A second exception, called the CFC-look through rule, was also targeted in the letter. The groups signing the letter said, “The last two-year extension of the CFC look-through rule was estimated by the Joint Committee on Taxation to have cost taxpayers $1.5 billion.”
As people continue to struggle to find decent work, the outrage over multinational corporations essentially gaming the system is understandable. We hope this outrage will compel Congress to stand up for ordinary taxpayers and stop giving these corporations a free pass.
Read the letter (Download PDF)
Financial Reform Advocates Call on the Senate to Close Expensive Tax Loopholes January 16th, 2014
The Oblate JPIC Office joined others in the FACT Coalition in signing a letter sent this morning to Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, on proposed international tax reform. The group said a proposal before the Committee “rightly identifies the need to stop corporations from shifting profits to offshore tax havens to avoid taxes. Unfortunately, the proposal falls short in three critical ways and leaves room for the offshoring of jobs and profits to continue:”
1. “It does not sufficiently end incentives for multinational corporations to shift profits offshore, which costs taxpayers an estimated $90 billion per year and creates an uneven playing field for small and domestic businesses.”
2. “It is revenue neutral, earmarking all the revenue raised from closing loopholes for reductions in the corporate tax rate. With federal revenue from corporations hovering at multigenerational lows, precisely because of the offshore profit shifting incentives, this is unacceptable.”
3. “It should hold corporations accountable to report their profits and revenues in a consistent manner to government, shareholders and the public.”
In arguing for doing away with lucrative corporate tax loopholes, the reform-minded groups argue that “Corporations benefit from the operation of government just as individuals do (and more so in some cases due to myriad tax benefits and lucrative contracts) and should be expected to contribute to financing our democracy, public services and rule of law. However the corporate share of federal revenue was just eight percent in 2011, having declined by more than 60 percent in the last 50 years.”
“Due to huge loopholes and other factors, dozens of big corporations pay no federal income taxes, while reaping billions of dollars in profits. According to the Government Accountability Office, corporations pay just a 12.6 percent effective tax rate, far below the statutory rate of 35%.”
Learn more, read the letter to Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (Download PDF)
