Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, as chairman of the Finance Committee in 2004, was successful in enacting reforms that prevented companies from simply setting up a filing cabinet and a mailbox overseas to escape millions of dollars of federal taxes. He made the following comment today on the Treasury Department’s new attempt to curb the latest iteration of tax inversions.
“The Treasury secretary first said he didn’t have the authority to do something on inversions. Now he’s found the authority. That’s consistent with the President’s approach to use his pen and phone instead of working with Congress. Unfortunately, that approach might give the President a short-term gain but it’s bad for the country in the long term. The Obama Administration’s limited action on inversions might take the pressure off for tax reform. Just about everybody agrees comprehensive tax reform is necessary to make U.S. companies more internationally competitive. It’s important for the President to use his bully pulpit to work with Congress on tax reform and help build a consensus on the right approach, yet this President hasn’t done it. That’s too bad because tax reform is something Congress and the executive branch could accomplish instead of jumping from inversion crisis to crisis.”
-30-
