Tax windfall: Just one proposal on ethical finance is pending for 2020. Taking an idea raised previously by Trillium Asset Management at Gilead Sciences, the Benedictine Sisters of Mt. St. Scholastica and Oxfam are asking Merck to provide “a report, prepared at a reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, describing how the company plans to allocate tax savings that result from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("TCJA").” The resolution points out the 2017 law cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and reduced federal revenue by $100 billion. The proponents say they want to know how the company’s tax savings are being spent to provide long-term value creation. They also point out the company doubled its stock buybacks from $4 billion in 2017 to twice that in 2018, while cutting research and development expenditures. (The Gilead proposal earned just 2.2 percent, not enough or resubmission, although it survived a company challenge, where the SEC disagreed it concerned ordinary business.)