Clinton, Sanders back Treasury’s new actions on offshore tax deals

The Democratic presidential candidates are backing the Obama administration’s latest actions aimed at deterring companies from moving their headquarters overseas to lower their taxes.  

{mosads}“The Treasury’s new rules have put profitable corporations on notice that their greed will not be allowed to continue,” Bernie Sanders said in a statement Tuesday released through his Senate office.

Sanders said “the rules appear to eliminate the $35 billion in tax breaks that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer would have received from its planned offshore merger.” He also called on Congress to pass legislation that would stop inversions altogether.

The Treasury Department on Monday issued new guidance that targets “corporate inversions,” or transactions in which U.S. companies merge with foreign businesses and then reincorporate in a foreign country for tax purposes. Both Sanders and Hillary Clinton have criticized inversions and have put forth proposals aimed at stopping them.

Clinton spokesman Ian Sams said that the former secretary of State backs Treasury’s measures on inversions.

“Yesterday’s action by the Treasury Department to further restrict this egregious behavior is a strong step forward, which she supports,” he said.

Sams added that Clinton would go even further as president because she wants to impose an “exit tax” on companies’ untaxed overseas earnings when they invert.