An "Army of Lobbyists" Is Quietly Fighting for Budget-Busting Corporate Tax Breaks

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/joshua-holland/55172/an-army-of-lobbyists-is-quietly-fighting-for-budget-busting-corporate-tax-breaks

An "Army of Lobbyists" Is Quietly Fighting for Budget-Busting Corporate Tax Breaks
Corporate America | Taxes
by Joshua Holland | April 4, 2014 - 9:31am
— from Moyers & Company

An army of corporate lobbyists is trying to push a huge package of tax cuts through Congress without drawing public attention.

The 55 cuts, known on Capitol Hill as “extenders,” expired at the end of 2013 but in the past have been renewed retroactively on a bipartisan basis with little fanfare. Altogether, according to the Congressional Budget Office, they could cost the federal government $46 billion in revenues in 2014 and as much as $700 billion over the next 10 years. While some of the breaks would help working people, 90 percent of them would benefit the bottom lines of large, US-based multinationals.

A report released on Monday by Americans for Tax Fairness and Public Campaign calculates that, “1,359 individual lobbyists swarmed Capitol Hill to press members of Congress on the issue between January 2011 and September 2013.” Lobbyists appeared “12,378 times in quarterly lobbying reports in the period studied – each report representing from one to dozens of contacts with members of Congress and their staffs during the quarter it was filed.”

Arguably the most controversial of these tax breaks is known as the Active Financing Exception loophole (AFE), which allows companies to avoid paying taxes on interest and dividends earned on overseas cash. Lobbying for the AFE has been especially intense.

[justhanginon]

1. I would bet that the majority if not all 55 cuts will

be renewed. 1,359 lobbyists and their campaign contributions shall not be ignored. Especially since the supreme court has further enabled the fat cats to accelerate the purchasing of congress. I don't think the outcome is even in doubt. The money truck is already standing by at the loading dock.
Why would corporations need to pay their fair share of taxes when we can get the revenue lost replaced by cutting food stamps and other programs the less fortunate among us rely on.
And the beat goes on! and on! and on!