Statement:  Emanuel Introduces House Companion on Tax Shelter Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) delivered the following remarks today on the House floor regarding new legislation to shut down tax shelters.

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend members of the other chamber for introducing bipartisan legislation to shut down abusive accounting tax shelters costing U.S. taxpayers $18 billion every year, and leaving middle-class Americans to pick up the tab. 

These shelters are devised by accountants as part of the tax “services” they market to their audit clients. Fairness should be synonymous with the tax code. That’s why I will introduce a companion bill to eliminate the way firms market tax shelters to their audit clients.

This bill will eliminate tax shelters created by accounting firms selling tax “advice” directly to the publicly traded companies whose books they audit.  As today’s hearing on tax shelters in the other body will show, this process makes a mockery of “auditor independence” and creates irreconcilable conflicts of interest for auditors.

Mr. Speaker, the economic principle of transparency and the American value of accountability are essential to economic growth. These abusive accounting schemes do neither—burdening the middle class and slowing down our economic recovery.  I’m proud to support this real reform to get real results.”