“By 2017, American companies had put at least $2.6 trillion into
offshore tax shelters…Nike had $12.2 billion…. The company estimates
that if its $12.2 billion was repatriated to the U.S., it would owe
$4.1 billion in U.S. taxes… Designating its profits this way allows
the company to avoid paying even a dime of U.S. income taxes on these
profits…” – The Oregonian. More about this in a minute.
The
horrible murder of George Floyd was treated by the marketing industry
this week as an opportunity to express sincere desire for change. Sadly,
it also exposed our talent for hypocrisy.
While brand marketers
were exhorting us to end practices that cause social damage to black
Americans, they were themselves deeply engaged in some of the most
pernicious practices.
I have my own standard for evaluating a
company’s true commitment to social justice. It is this: to what
extremes does it go to avoid paying taxes?
Taxation may be
unpleasant. Tax dollars are often squandered on idiotic schemes. Paying
taxes may reduce a corporation’s returns to investors. But taxation is
by far the most potent source of resources for societies to redress
social ills. Taxation funds education. Taxation funds housing. Taxation
funds health initiatives. Taxation funds social services.
There is
no way around this — when corporations take extraordinary measures to
avoid paying taxes, they are doing extraordinary harm to citizens who
have the greatest need for education, housing, health, and social services. If brands really believe that Black Lives Matter they must
stop starving our country of the resources to improve black lives by
hiding their taxable profits in offshore tax havens. Like it or not, to a
substantial degree, taxation is the engine that funds social justice.
There
will be those who say that these tax dodges are perfectly legal. In
many cases they are. This fact impresses me not one bit. If you’re going
to use social media or paid media to pound your chest about social
justice, you have a higher responsibility than just to obey the letter
of the law. There is little honor in being legally compliant and
ethically opportunistic.
Dear business colleagues — if you really
want to help heal this country here’s step one: Pay your fucking taxes.
Until you’re willing to do that, please instruct your marketing
departments to spare us the high-minded pieties.
Let’s make this so simple that even a ceo can understand it: You can’t be for social justice and against paying taxes.
