Oxfam America proposes a COVID-19 Pandemic Profits Tax to help reverse inequalities & rebuild better post-pandemic
"Pandemic profits exposed," 22 July 2020
Seventeen of the top 25 most profitable US corporations, including Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Facebook, Pfizer, and Visa, are expected to make almost $85 billion more in 2020 super-profits compared to previous years, new Oxfam estimates show. If we continue with business as usual, these windfall profits will not be handed out to workers in wages, won’t be used to lower consumer prices, nor used to pay a bit more in taxes to fund healthcare workers. These profits will be paid to shareholders... Oxfam calls on the US government and others to:
- Meet the moment by enacting a COVID-19 Pandemic Profits Tax for large companies... [T]he COVID-19 Pandemic Profits Tax is targeted at the largest and most profitable companies: precisely those that are both benefitting most during the crisis and have the ability to pay to help offset the deep economic scars being inflicted by this virus.
- Restore public confidence in the tax system by requiring multinational companies to be fully transparent by requiring companies to publish country-by-country tax and financial reports...
- Create a level playing field by ensuring large multinational companies pay their fair share of taxes where economic activity takes place...
- Commission an independent evaluation to assess and address the impacts on gender, racial, and economic inequality in the US and abroad of major corporate tax reforms
... Oxfam calls on all the companies listed to: act more transparently..., pay their fair share..., use their influence responsibly...,immediately adopt the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s Tax Standard... (Oxfam reached out to all the companies named in this briefing to share the data gathered, the methodology employed, and the findings of our research. Several companies provided constructive feedback that has been incorporated into this analysis. Other companies neither confirmed nor denied the research findings. Several of the companies also shared their efforts to address COVID-19.)