Dupage Policy Journal

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined U.S. Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew late last week, urging him to publish an annual list of inverted companies and use executive authority to crack down on tax-avoidance schemes.

“Like many other companies seeking to invert, Terex, CF Industries Holdings and Coca Cola Enterprises took advantage of our education system, our research and development incentives, our skilled workforce, our infrastructure, our patent and court systems and our national security, all supported by U.S. taxpayers, to start and build their businesses,” the letter said. “Now they seek to renounce their citizenship to skirt paying taxes for the very services they benefit from."

"Although Congress and the Department of Treasury took steps in the past to curb corporation inversions, these tax dodgers have continued to exploit loopholes in our laws and regulations," the group said. "For example, Congress prohibited the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from awarding contracts to inverted corporations in the 2002 DHS authorization … Unfortunately, Ingersoll Rand, an inverted corporation with roots in the United States that dates back to 1871, was recently cleared by the DHS to compete for federal contacts. This mixed track record for enforcing the contracting prohibition on inverted corporations is partly due to the fact that it is difficult for procurement personnel to determine whether a company is inverted."