Bernie Sanders seeks to crackdown on corporate tax havens

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Thursday announced new legislation aimed at preventing corporations from using offshore havens to lower their taxes.

"If we are going to be serious about deficit reduction, corporate America -- which is now enjoying record breaking profits -- is going to have to step up to the plate," he said at a press conference. "We are not going to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick, or the poor."

The Corporate Tax Fairness Act would require corporations to pay U.S. taxes on their offshore profits as they are earned. Currently, corporations can defer U.S. income taxes on overseas profits as long as the money is held overseas. The bill would also limit foreign tax credits, and crack down on corporations that claim to be a foreign company by purchasing a post office box in another country.

"Every year corporations and the wealthy are avoiding more than $100 billion in U.S. taxes by sheltering their income in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and other offshore tax havens," Sanders said, noting a relatively small, four-story building in the Cayman Islands was home to more than 18,000 corporations.

"The Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated in the past that the provisions in this bill will raise more than $590 billion in revenue over the next decade," he added.

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by SenatorSanders, below: