MEASURE TO CLOSE CORPORATE OFFSHORE TAX HAVENS ADVANCES

Special tax protections for multinational corps cost Maine $5 million a year

AUGUSTA – The Maine Senate unanimously advanced a measure to prevent multinational corporations from evading Maine taxes through offshore tax havens.

“If Mainers are expected to pay their fair share then so should multinational corporations. We should stop allowing wealthy international corporations to use these tax-dodging loopholes,” said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Anne Haskell of Portland, the Senate Chair of the Taxation Committee. “Closing these corporate tax loopholes is a matter of fairness and creates a level playing field for small businesses in Maine who play by the rules and don’t use these tricks.”

The measure requires corporations to report income from a list of 38 known offshore tax havens, including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and Luxembourg. The bill is expected to return $10 million per budget cycle to the State of Maine.

States lose an estimated $20 billion annually because of corporate use of offshore tax havens. Montana, Oregon, Alaska, and West Virginia already have adopted practices like those in the bill, and other states are considering similar proposals.

Maine already has domestic tax evasion checks in place to prevent corporations from hiding money in states like Delaware and Nevada.

The bill, LD 1120, “An Act To Improve Maine’s Tax Laws,” is sponsored by Rep. Adam Goode.
The measure has been placed on the so-called “special Appropriations table” for further consideration before returning to the Senate for enactment.

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