ProPublica, an investigative outfit in the United States, reports that a company producing tax-filing software has been active in trying to influence policy. The software company allegedly has used proxies to argue against a simpler system for filing taxes. Such a simplification would reduce the need for tax-filing software. It appears that the public relations firm working for the software maker had citizens reach out to lawmakers, with strikingly similar letters. Below is the story.
If you are interested in policy, you may now well wonder whether any think tanks got involved. Here is where Find Policy comes in: type in the name of the software maker in the Public Policy search page, and you can see what think tanks tell us on this issue.
Screenshot from Find Policy
A first glance suggests that think tanks across the spectrum were onto the issue. The New America Foundation highlighted corporate lobbying against simpler filing a few years ago, drawing on a local newspaper.
It's a different political perspective, but they highlight that there are vested interests in keeping things complicated. As think tanks are becoming more transparent, it will be easier in the future to track contributions across think tanks in a single search as well. Faster and more focused, Find Policy makes it easy for you to see what the world's leading think tanks are up to.
Go straight to the Public Policy search page here.