10 Mar 2004 Project 21 Press Release: Black Group Applauds Bipartisan Low-Tax Effort – March 2004

Critical of current tax law that effectively encourages American companies to keep their foreign profits abroad, members of the African-American leadership network Project 21 applaud efforts to lower this specific tax rate and allow these companies to bring their profits home and help grow the American economy and rebuild its infrastructure.

The “Invest in the U.S.A. Act,” co-sponsored in the U.S. Senate by Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), would lower the tax of foreign profits earned by American companies from the current rate of 35 percent to 5.25 percent. According to a study by the financial services firm J.P Morgan, Chase and Company, as much as $500 million in foreign profits earned by American companies remain abroad due to this high tax burden. The study further predicts the enactment of legislation reducing the tax rate could bring $300 billion of that profit back into the U.S. economy and, according to the congressional Joint Committee of Taxation, raise $4 billion in taxes for the government. Such an influx would also create a tremendous boost in the nation’s gross domestic product.

“Encouraging American firms with foreign subsidiaries to bring their profits back into the United States is good for not only the U.S. workers, but also the nation’s gross domestic product and the U.S. economy as a whole,” said Project 21 member Gregory Parker, a government affairs consultant.

Project 21 has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992. For more information, contact David Almasi at (202) 507-6398 x106 or [email protected], or visit Project 21’s website at http://www.project21.org/P21Index.html.