Do not lower the corporate tax rate
Federal budget
Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
Why shareholder democracy is pivotal
The corporate tax rate is written by Congress, and corporate lobbying is the documented force behind cutting it. Public Citizen found that 22 of the 55 large corporations that paid no federal income tax in 2020 lobbied on the 2017 law that cut the rate from 35 to 21 percent. That lobbying was part of roughly $450 million those firms spent on lobbying and political contributions. Corporate America continues to dominate tax lobbying year after year. Owners can direct companies to stand down that lobbying and to disclose their tax practices. Shareholder votes already test this: tax transparency proposals at Microsoft and Cisco in 2022 drew support from investors holding hundreds of billions of dollars in shares. Majorities of both parties want the corporate rate left where it is, and the only documented push in the other direction comes from the companies that won the cut. No court, constitutional rule or technical barrier stands between public opinion and this outcome. We therefore judge corporate political influence to be the linchpin and rate this position pivotal: owners who direct their companies to stop lobbying for rate cuts can hold the line the public already wants held.
How this was scoredPivotal
Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Common Ground of the American People: The Federal Budget (Americans on the FY2025 Budget), Program for Public Consultation / Voice of the People, survey May 30 - June 16, 2025
- Corporations Are Spending Millions on Lobbying to Avoid Taxes, Public Citizen, 2021-08-11
- Microsoft, Cisco Shareholder Votes Demonstrate Increasing Investor Demand for Tax and Offshore Transparency, FACT Coalition, 2022-12
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Tracks and publicizes shareholder votes on public country-by-country tax reporting and works with member Oxfam America on investor engagement.
Filed 2024 shareholder proposals at Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Kosmos Energy asking for public country-by-country tax reporting.
Co-filed the first tax transparency proposal voted at Amazon in 2022.
Amazon Investors Push Company on Global Tax Transparency, FACT Coalition, 2022-05
3 campaigns on record
Publicly report earnings and taxes in every country of operation using Global Reporting Initiative standards.
Result: Chevron: 85 percent against; Kosmos Energy: about 23 percent in favor; ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips excluded the proposals before a vote
Issue public country-by-country tax reporting aligned with Global Reporting Initiative standards, covering revenue, income, employees, cash taxes paid, taxes accrued and tangible assets by country.
Result: Microsoft: investors holding more than $305 billion voted in favor, the most support of any proposal at the meeting; Cisco: 27 percent in favor, representing $38.3 billion in shares
Publish tax information in line with the Global Reporting Initiative Tax Standard, including revenues, profit before tax, income tax paid and employees by jurisdiction.
With Greater Manchester Pension Fund
Result: More than 21 percent of independent shareholders in favor, representing $144 billion in shareholder assets
Amazon Investors Push Company on Global Tax Transparency, FACT Coalition, 2022-05
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Common Ground of the American People's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.