Philadelphia's Big Business Tax Breaks Threatened by Nonpartisan 'US Uncut'

US Uncut aims to raise awareness about big business tax cuts and loopholes through protests, press and events. The nonpartisan group depends upon grassroots activism and focuses on large corporations receiving these benefits. US Uncut criticizes laws that allow breaks and loopholes for companies like Apple, GE and Bank of America.

US Uncut is promoting the organization of nationwide protests against Apple on or around June 4. The group claims that Apple lobbies Congress for additional tax loopholes. The Philadelphia protest event takes place May 28, with an additional protest against Bank of America occurring on the same day in nearby Collingwood, N.J.

US Uncut member Dustin Slaughter attended an April protest against Bank of America in Philadelphia. The protest took place at City Hall.

"We believe that the middle class shouldn't have to suffer because Fortune 500 companies don't pay their fair share in federal income taxes," Slaughter said.

Slaughter also described the local impact of corporate tax breaks and loopholes.

"Comcast received the tax subsidy for creating the Comcast Center downtown. That same amount of money -- if that had not happened -- would have gone to low-income health care here in the state of Pennsylvania. We need to shake our legislature somehow and make them realize that giving these tax credits to companies to create jobs is not working," Slaughter said.

US Uncut's momentum is likely due in part to its nonpartisan nature. Because it does not identify with a particular political party, Independents and members of any large or small political party can come together for this cause.

"The message that this group is promoting is something that can unify a lot of different aspects of society," Slaughter said. "It's not a party issue, it's a class issue."

Bank of America was the target of the April protest because "They receive 45 billion dollars in taxpayer bailout money and in 2009 they paid their investment bankers 4.4 billion dollars in bonuses," Slaughter explained.

"They laid off 36,000 workers in the same year. The U.S. taxpayer is helping them pay off these bankers and we are taking the brunt of these austerity problems," Slaughter said.

According to Slaughter, corporations pay little taxes because they employ accountants and lawyers with this purpose in mind.

"GE [General Electric] has on their staff over 800 people working 356 days a year to rewrite U.S. tax code. U.S. tax code is over 10,000 pages long now and it's filled with loopholes. Meanwhile we're cutting education, health care, [food] assistance, first responders -- so it's pretty clear that these major corporations are gaming the system," Slaughter said.

US Uncut-sponsored protests are intended to create change. The organization asks individuals to pressure the government and corporations on local and national levels, preventing corporations from lobbying heavily and taking advantage of tax loopholes.

"We essentially want the federal government to crack down on corporate influence of tax loopholes. There needs to be strict regulation on writing these tax loopholes for these corporations. The message needs to be that this country can't survive with corporations not paying their taxes. They're killing the country," Slaughter said. "Washington, D.C. needs to stop these corporations from writing tax codes."

Source: Tara Clapper conducted a phone interview with Dustin Slaughter in April of 2011.