DeLauro on Pfizer and Allergan Inversion Announcement

NEW HAVEN, CT (November 23, 2015) — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) released the following statement regarding the Pfizer and Allergan inversion announcement earlier today.

"Pfizer built their business on the back of our research and development tax incentives, our federally supported medical research, our skilled workforce, and our infrastructure – all funded by honest, hardworking Americans who pay their taxes. Now Pfizer is renouncing their citizenship to dodge their tax bill," said DeLauro. "We cannot continue to allow Pfizer and other corporations to pretend that they are American while reaping the benefits this country has to offer, yet claiming to be another nationality when the tax bill comes. Congress and the Administration must do more to prevent these companies from moving their mailboxes abroad to avoid paying taxes in the United States."

"We also need to stop rewarding these companies with lucrative federal contracts. Congress must pass the No Federal Contracts for Corporate Deserters Act so that Pfizer and other inverted companies will no longer be able to benefit from federal contracts at the expense of companies who pay their fair share."

While benefiting from U.S. patent protection and research and development credits, Pfizer paid no federal income taxes from 2010 to 2012 when it earned $43 billion worldwide. Over that same three-year period, Pfizer received $3.4 billion in taxpayer-funded federal contracts and $2.2 billion in federal tax refunds.

DeLauro is author of the No Federal Contracts for Corporate Deserters Act. That legislation would bar contracts from going to businesses that reincorporate overseas, are majority-owned by shareholders of the old U.S. corporation and do not have substantial business activities in the foreign country in which they are incorporating. It would also strengthen current law by curbing most subcontracts with inverted corporations.

DeLauro along with other Members of Congress, urged Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in September to publish an annual list of inverted companies and use executive authority to crack down on inversions. Their letter to Secretary Lew can be read in its entirety here.

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