Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke released the following statement on the announcement that the Department of the Treasury will develop rules to prevent corporate “inversions,” in which a company based in the United States merges with a foreign company to avoid paying taxes. The rules have not yet been finalized, but Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew said that rules will apply to any inversions that occur after September 23, 2014.

“American workers and the owners of small businesses already pay their share of taxes with a deduction from each paycheck or in estimated tax payments each quarter, and cannot avoid their responsibility to pay taxes through complicated schemes designed by financial advisors and tax attorneys for multinational corporations. I believe we should reward work, not gimmicks,” said Congresswoman Clarke. “To expand opportunity to every American family, we must require that everyone plays by the same set of rules.”

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.