In remarks on Thursday, President Obama decried US corporations’ use of “tax inversions,” which allow them to reduce their tax liabilities by officially relocating offshore. Obama’s comments received significant print and online coverage, but they were not mentioned during any of the three network newscasts Thursday evening. Reports and analyses describe Obama’s focus on “economic patriotism” as part of the Democrats’ midterm campaign messaging, and they note that Obama’s proposal to limit the use of inversions has almost no chance of getting through Congress anytime soon – even though many Republicans share his concerns about the practice.
Here is a bi partisan issue. Are corporations renouncing their citizenship by relocating off shore?
Corporations are not citizens and serve their owners, the share/bond holders. Like Americans do everyday, they reduce their tax burden to the lowest dollar possible. Another great diversion.
ReplyDeleteLou in a case recently decided by the Supreme Court called Citizens United and in the words of Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and others corporations are people too. You can't have it both ways. Are corporations people? Are they not? Did the court get it wrong in the citizens United case?
DeleteInstead of using the party rhetoric, read the SCOTUS decision, after all Hillary is mentioned it it.
Deletehttp://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf
p.s. Who's Romney, no one, like you. After all like Barack Obama has said, it was just politics.
In Citizens United the court extends the rights of citizens to corporations in effect making them citizens.
DeleteI have been looking everywhere in the SCOTUS where a corporation has voting rights like citizens.
DeleteHow are unions and their citizenship different from corporations?
Hey maybe it was about leveling the playing field.
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php
What a surprise, you didn't bother reading the SCOTUS decision.
sorry lou I did read the decision. It gives the same rights of speech to corporations as it does citizens. Unions, well they are an association of voting citizens. Corporations have been given the right to vote with their money. They spend it to buy politicians, influence elections and hire lobbyists. It is much more voice then you and I can ever dream of having.
DeleteMany who say no will point to high corporate taxes in the US. But lets be honest. With all the loopholes and subsidies we know that most corporations pay well less then the stated tax rate and some pay no tax at all. This doesn't look to change anytime soon. Are they forsaking their country but avoiding taxes? Should they be allowed to sell their product in the US if they choose to leave? Should a tariff be placed on their product if they leave. What is the answer?
ReplyDeleteThe effective tax rate paid to foreign governments in 2010 was 27.2%
http://taxfoundation.org/article/how-much-do-us-multinational-corporations-pay-foreign-income-taxes
The effective tax rate paid to the US government in 2012 was 12.6%.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/01/news/economy/corporate-tax-rate/index.html
Why are our companies leaving? It seems there is more of a reason then taxes.
Let's be really honest. Business leaves because they need to remain competitive. Business pays no tax, the consumer pays the tax as taxes like labor are a cost of doing business and factored into the cost of goods and services. When the business cannot raise prices because it reduces their competitiveness, they look for ways to reduce costs. Off shore work. Reduce their US work force. Move the business off shore.
DeleteI personally like the foreign auto companies model. Make parts off shore in a low wage, tax country, import the parts to the US and sell them to the US subsidiary at a high cost. The US subsidiary writes off the high parts cost, reducing their taxes yet nothing is said by the administration.
Businesses leave to exploit a growing workforce over seas. They pay ridiculously low wages in ridiculously unsafe environments.
DeleteOf course they do Rick, has nothing to do with the individual demanding cheap shit instead of American made. Always blame someone else instead of taking responsibility. The true trait of a progressive.
DeleteSee Lou that is where you are wrong. I buy American as much as possible. I drive an American vehicle, one with a Shreveport Louisiana production sticker on it. Yes Lou where it was made was that important. You mention above your like for the foreign model of building cars in the USA. Make the parts cheaper overseas and assemble them here. I totally disagree with that model, and if used, those parts should have tariffs applied before they enter our great country. It is merely a means to by pass the protections our government has given to American industry. Seems Lou you are the more anti American of the two of us.
DeletePretty much everybody in America wants a free lunch. In reality, there is a cost to everything. There is a cost to maintain our courts and defend our rights, protect our country and so on. Most of this is funded through taxes , taxes that nobody wants to pay. You know I agree with you Lou on the consumption of cheap shit. We wanted all that shit, but now bitch that there aren't any jobs for unskilled labor. Corporations, to a large degree, are just giving us what we want. They have moved the labor to places where they can brutally and ruthlessly exploit cheap labor out of our sight and free of our sensibilitites, and through manipulation, they are skirting paying a lot of taxes.
ReplyDeleteTechnically, corporations cannot vote. legally. We all know the reality though, they simply buy legislation that favors them. One man/one vote has been completely usurped by the concept of many votes for many dollars. In addition to failed utopias, such as communism, I believe history is also full of plenty of examples of societies collapsing when the control of wealth and power became concentrated into just a small portion of hands. I don't like working in union shops, I don't like paying high taxes and like everyone else, I want to buy cheap shit. I'm not, however, without an understanding of how these attitudes impact the stability of the country. Through low taxes, destruction of unions AND offshoring of jobs, we've put the country in a bad spot and created a lot of bad excess. Politically, we're not in the mood to fix it.
Don't the unions do the same thing, buy votes?
Deletehttp://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php
Today, it's all about me. Until we decide to make it about what's best for the country, expect things to be the same or get worse. I guess I get so tired of the corporations are not paying their fair share, the corporations are not hiring Americans, corporations are not paying fair wages. All the while Americans demand cheap junk, demand cheap labor so we import illegals to do the things Americans don't want to do as they will lose their free.
And no, Americans would be the first to scream if the bene's are taken away, business would scream if they had to pay more. All in all, very distasteful.
Kabuki
ReplyDelete