Allison Kilkenny | The Nation
US Uncut Adds Verizon and FedEx to its Target List
Chris Priest, one of ten people on the board of US Uncut’s national planning committee, tells me that Verizon and FedEx have recently been added to US Uncut’s target list. He also added that there is a larger list of corporate tax dodgers the group plans to release later in the month. Both Verizon and FedEx are multibillion-dollar corporations that pay lower tax rates than you do, and the reason Verizon is able to do this is by creatively redirecting profits to their foreign wireless partner, Vodafone.
Vodafone has been the longtime target of UK Uncut due to its equally unscrupulous tax dodging practices. The company claims a large portion of its revenue should not be subject to British taxation because they reroute the cash through Luxembourg, which has a tax rate of under 10 percent. Vodafone has managed to double its profit during the recession by using this funneling scheme that ultimately robbed British taxpayers of billions of pounds that could have gone toward funding communities.
So here we have an exploitative company, Verizon, channeling its income to another corrupt partner in Britain, all in the name of avoiding taxation. These massive evaders do this during a time when public services in both Britain and America are being slashed in the name of “fiscal responsibility,” but the really responsible thing would be to make corporations pay their fair share in taxes.
And then there’s FedEx, a company with a long history of battling the IRS, but which has thus far remained relatively under the radar despite its shady practices. The GAO released a report in 2007 that stated FedEx has twenty-one subsidiaries in jurisdictions listed as tax havens (Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, three in the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Grenada, two in Hong Kong, three in Ireland, two in Netherland Antilles, Singapore, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Turks and Caicos Islands and the US Virgin Islands). For comparison, Exxon Mobil, one of the legendary tax-dodging corporations, had thirty-two listed tax havens in its 2007 report. Such revenue sheltering practices place FedEx in the big leagues of corporate scam artists.
However, Priest tells me Verizon will very likely be US Uncut’s next main target. “They owe a lot [in taxes],” he says, “and [Verizon] has easily accessible walk-in locations everywhere…easier than a bank to occupy.”
Meet US Uncut
Last month, journalist Johann Hari wrote an article for The Nation called “How to Build a Progressive Tea Party” in which he detailed the sudden and rapid evolution of UK Uncut, a British movement formed to curb corporate tax dodging. At the time, Hari’s wish was for the cause to cross the pond and take root in America.
It took about a month for the dream to become a reality. A young man named Carl Gibson from Mississippi read Hari’s article and immediately felt inspired to launch US Uncut. The reasoning behind his motivation was simple.
“I have one dollar in my wallet. That’s more than the combined income tax liability of GE, ExxonMobil, Citibank and the Bank of America. That means somebody is gaming the system,” says Gibson.
Gibson set up a website, and almost overnight franchises sprung up across the country, and a national day of action was declared for protests at Bank of America. I attended one such US Uncut protest in New York City.
The group’s ascension is certainly remarkable. Every time I revisit US Uncut’s website, there are more franchise marks on the homepage’s map, and my inbox is filled with testimonies and video footage of various US Uncut excursions. The latest comes courtesy of a group of Boston organizers who crashed Bank of America’s first Investor Conference in three years.
Protesters staged sit-ins at their local BoAs and held “educational seminars” in which they advised average citizens on how to cheat on their taxes like giant corporations.
But despite the swift expansion of US Uncut’s ranks, the group remains largely a mystery to the general public, perhaps because the media have thus far done a poor job of spotlighting the populist movement.
So in the spirit of edification, here is a brief FAQ about US Uncut.
Q: What is US Uncut?
A: US Uncut is an anti–tax dodging movement. According to the group, they are “about taking action against unnecessary and unfair cuts to public services across the US.” They believe the country isn’t broke, but rather the elite and wealthy are permitted to play by a different set of rules that permits them to shelter their revenue in foreign tax havens and skirt other taxes.
Q: Why all the Bank of America hate?
A: In 2009, Bank of America didn’t pay a single cent in federal income taxes. Other corporate offenders include Citigroup, Boeing, Exxon, Wells Fargo and General Electric. In fact, all kinds of massively wealthy corporations pay very little, or no, taxes at all. Additionally, Bank of America received $20 billion in TARP cash AKA taxpayer money, which is why US Uncut views BoA’s relationship with citizens as being parasitic. The giant bank sucks taxpayers dry, but then refuses to contribute back to the society that facilitated its lavish profits.
Q: Doesn't the United States have a very high corporate tax rate already?
A: Conservatives often cite the fact that America's corporate tax rate is 35 percent, making it higher than the average of other industrial countries. However, this doesn't take into account tax-evading practices. The S&P 500 is home to 115 companies that received more in credits than they pay out.
Q: Is there a US Uncut chapter by me?
A: Find out at the official website: http://www.usuncut.org/
Q: Who is the leader?
A: Though Carl Gibson founded US Uncut, the structure of the group is similar to the hacking group Anonymous in that there isn’t clear-cut leadership. Each branch of US Uncut does its own thing, though they adopt similar themes (targets, slogans, signs, etc.)
Q: What do they hope to accomplish?
A: Gibson told In These Times, "We want to reframe the national debate about how to deal with this recession: Instead of saying 'what can we cut from the budget because we can't possibly raise taxes on anyone,' why don't we make the two-thirds of corporations that don't pay any income taxes pay their fair share? If we did, the U.S. Treasury would recoup $100 billion a year, a trillion dollars in a decade."
Q: Is this, in any way, related to circumcision?
A: No.
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