U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) recently detailed a Democratic staff memorandum outlining updated findings from his ongoing investigation into pharmaceutical industry tax practices.
Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote that the pharmaceutical industry average effective tax rate decreased by over 40 percent in the years after the 2017 tax law was enacted while also determining the pharmaceutical industry reported 75 percent of its profits overseas, allowing the companies to pay tax rates lower than many middle class Americans.
“Democrats warned in 2017 that the Republican tax law was going to amount to a massive giveaway to multinational corporations, and here’s the proof that that’s exactly what happened,” Wyden said. “Republicans handed Big Pharma a 40 percent tax cut. There’s no question that the tax system was broken prior to 2017, but instead of fixing it, Republicans gave Big Pharma a green light for some of the most aggressive tax gaming highly trained accountants can dream up.”
Wyden began his investigation of pharmaceutical industry tax practices two years ago.
“The result is that Big Pharma gets us coming and going–they charge Americans sky high prices and they pay absolute rock-bottom taxes, not anywhere near a fair share,” Wyden said. “It’s simply appalling that multinational drug companies raking in many billions of dollars in profits are paying taxes at lower rates than middle class families. Democrats are focused on fixing our international tax code, cracking down on tax gaming and ensuring corporations, including Big Pharma, pay a fair share.”