From Citizen Works today...

Dear Citizen:

Congress is expected to pass President Bush's $87 billion supplemental appropriations request for Iraq this week, which includes $20 billion for rebuilding Iraq.

In the House, Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has drafted an amendment to the supplemental spending bill that would ban companies that have moved their headquarters to offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes from receiving government contracts in Iraq.

In recent years, several dozen U.S. companies have “reincorporated” in offshore tax havens, exploiting a tax loophole that now costs the Treasury billions of dollars in revenue each year. According to the General Accounting Office, four of the top 100 federal contractors – Accenture, Tyco, Foster Wheeler, and McDermott International – are now incorporated in an offshore tax haven. Bermuda-based Accenture, for instance, has more than $1 billion in federal contracts ($278 million in 2001 alone, according to the GAO), including a five-year contract to revamp the IRS’s own web site.

Put simply, companies that move offshore to a PO Box headquarters to avoid paying their fair share of taxes should not be rewarded with American taxpayer money. Please let your member of Congress know TODAY that you support Rep. Brown’s amendment to the supplemental Iraq appropriations request to ban tax escapees from receiving any contracts in the rebuilding of Iraq.

To contact your representative - http://www.house.gov/writerep

For more background on corporate tax escapees: http://www.citizenworks.org/corp/tax/corp_tax_dodgers.php

Keep up the good work,
Your Friends at Citizen Works