Protect Taxpayers, Defund the OECD!

Coalition for Tax Competition

April 6, 2015

Dear Senators and Representatives:

American taxpayers should not be asked to subsidize international organizations working against U.S. interests. The undersigned organizations, representing the Coalition for Tax Competition, call on Congress to protect American interests by ending subsidies to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The OECD has made ending tax competition one of its major purposes. In pursuit of this goal, it targets jurisdictions with low-tax rates and robust privacy rules aimed at protecting human rights.

Tax Competition plays a key role in promoting efficient government and encourages politicians to adopt pro-growth policies. It is an essential protection for taxpayers worldwide. The United States is also the world’s biggest beneficiary of international capital flows and tax competition through its attraction of international capital.

The OECD even weighs in on domestic U.S. policy debates and consistently sides with bigger government. In the past it has supported so-called “stimulus” spending, pushed Obamacare style health care, advocated for cap-and-trade regulation, and suggested a value-added tax in the U.S. In its most recent “Economic Survey” of the United States released last year, the OECD advocated for making the personal income tax system more redistributive, for greater federal involvement in education, and for new barriers to employment through a higher minimum wage and nationally mandated paid family leave.

In FY 2014, the United States sent $87 million to the OECD, much of which went to pay the tax-free salaries of its army of elite global bureaucrats. The United States is its single largest supporter, accounting for over 21% of its total 2014 budget.

There’s never a good time to ask American taxpayers to fund lavish paychecks for international bureaucrats working against their interests, but it’s especially egregious to do so when Washington can’t balance the budget. The undersigned organizations call upon Congress to defund the OECD.

Sincerely,