I advocate confiscatory taxes on the wealthy, and enhancement of the RICO law to go after the officers of corporations that are using these loopholes. I believe that the fear of prison is the most powerful motivator of good behavior in humans, and this would cause all of these tax cheating corporate bosses to start paying their fair share to the American people.
So many people on here are making liberal comments about this tax issue. Here is what I have to say; First of all what is driving US companies away from its' home country? Its a private sector, they must make money. Plain and simple. So here is an example; lets say i made a dollar, that is 100 pennies, or 4 quarters, or 10 dines or etc. Under current US tax law, it says, they are going to come in and take 35 percent. so you made 1.00 and gov takes away 35 cents, you are now left with .65 cents. This .65 cents are now split up to all the investors, cost of operation, paying employees, etc etc... now, why would i let the government take this amount of money? Why should i pay this amount and hire stupid lazy americans who wants more money to sit around and do nothing? most americans are lazy...this is why they join Unions so that they can even more lazy. If i were CEO, i would say bag our crap coz we are out of here. I DONT BLAME THEM for leaving USA. I think we need to get rid of the current loser president and change the tax laws to benefit everybody both the business and people of this great nation.
You said it best! These CEO's are taking the jobs to people who want them. What a novel idea! Not to Americans who have unemployment pay, food stamp, welfare and government paid health care. America is not a good place to take jobs as I look up in down main street I see a lot of help wanted signs, but I guess there all those low paying jobs, right? Who would want them? Many foreign countries of course! Wake up America!
John Chambers and all the others are blackmailers. They enjoy and use American resources(land, water, energy) and refuse to pay to play. So, Cisco moves to Zug, Switzerland, and others renounce their citizenship to avoid taxation. If that is the case, the executives and companies should be treated like any other foreign entity. Hit them with a 35% import tariff. Repeal Citizens United because the does not apply to alien entities.
A 35% tax would decimate me, but that figure has little impact on billions and billionaire's. This is a very ugly game that the robber barons are playing. Will China, India, Taiwan take the place of American consumers? Or will they refuse to buy the cheap junk they make?
60 Minutes mistakenly overlooked the basic difference between U.S. and European commercial taxes. While the U.S. has a higher "corporate" tax rate on ultimate profits, Europe has the "VAT" -- "value-added tax" -- which taxes products, repeatedly, at every step of manufacture and assembly.
Under Europe's VAT, a car can be taxed during manufacture as much as a dozen times or more -- when raw metal is sold to a bolt-maker, when a bolt is sold to a carburetor manufacturer, when the carburetor is sold to the engine maker, when the engine is sold to the auto assembler, when the auto is sold to the dealer, and so on.
Consequently, European productivity is actually taxed higher than U.S. productivity. The difference is that we heavily tax the bottom line, while Europe simply taxes every line item above it, and a little of the bottom line, too.
RH, management consultant; former member, World Trade Council of Wichita
Europe's VAT (value-added tax) system results in far higher, more complex, and less efficient tax collection than the U.S. system of bottom-line corporate taxes. No serious U.S. manufacturer wants to trade our system for Europe's ungodly complicated, costly VAT system, nor would any responsible public official. A lot of greedy corporate game-players, though (especially those that outsource most of their jobs overseas) would dearly love that change, so they can dodge most taxes by employing un-taxed/low-taxed third-world sweatshop labor, while still exploiting the rich U.S. consumer market.
The US also has a consumption tax - the sales tax. Most European countries tax only at the national level and don't have states or other political subdivisions with taxing authority.
Also, the European VAT does not work as you suggest. Although a European business does pay a VAT on everything it buys, it receives an "input tax credit" against the VAT tax it remits to the government on its own sales. To use your example, let's say that when the engine is sold to the auto assembler the engine maker charges the auto assembler 100 in VAT and when the auto assembler sells the vehicle to the dealer he charges the dealer 300 in VAT. The auto assembler remits 200 to the government because he gets credit for the 100 VAT tax he paid to the engine maker. VAT taxes are only paid once (albeit, in many small increments at each point in the supply chain) and are not duplicative as you suggest.
Sales & Use taxes, on the other hand, are duplicative because no credit is given for taxes paid to suppliers. Typically, purchases of materials that are part of the product are exempt from sales tax but everything else (supplies, office furniture, distribution equipment, flyers, software, advertising materials, et. al.) is taxable to the business purchasing them.
i think you misunderstand what VAT is. VAT doesnt effect corporations. VAT is set up to collect from consumers. if you buy a product, you get taxed or (VAT) or when you eat you get taxed (VAT) or when you buy gas you get taxed (VAT) only difference between USA and Europe or anywhere else where they have VAT is that its much lower in the USA than it is in europe.
They need to tax the profits where they are generated. In other words if the money is made in the USA they need to tax it before it gets out of the country. These people are a bunch of greedy pigs who value money over there country or anything else. I read Sam Waltons book several years ago it was called "Made In America" because there was a time when he was alive that Walmart would not sell anything that wasn't American made. He would be rolling over in his grave now.
I think that we should stop electing brainless idiots to run our country... make a law that requires the taxation to be based upon where the top brass reside? Seriously? I mean... seriously? Even a five year old could figure out that's stupid. I don't think it's unamerican to move to a country that taxes less, it's unamerican to have such a high tax rate that you force your citizens to move because you're an idiot and can't problem solve.
To me, this is a lose-lose situation. What is the largest market for these products? The United States. Which country has the largest defense that harbors these companies? The United States. Which country has natural barriers to the east and west and sports one very stable country to the north? The United States. What country is bleeding for dollars because of an inept gov't and stretched military? The United States. What country has a corroding public school system and infrastructure? The United States. What country is among the most indebted in the world? The United States. What host country has some of the richest corporations and highly paid individuals in the world? The United States.
Is it expensive to do business here? Yes. It's also the biggest market and one of the most stable countries in the world. That's the trade-off.
Germany is doing things right. They turned themselves around and keep their people busy and fairly paid. Something about this corporate tax debate doesn't smell right.
Interestingly, look who sponsors this vid: Pfizer.
So, these companies are loyal to their shareholders first, not to their host country? I'd wager a guess as to which party the majority of these people are affiliated.
Coda: Kudos to Brad and Sky who both win the "Post of the Day" award.
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A 35% tax would decimate me, but that figure has little impact on billions and billionaire's. This is a very ugly game that the robber barons are playing. Will China, India, Taiwan take the place of American consumers? Or will they refuse to buy the cheap junk they make?
Under Europe's VAT, a car can be taxed during manufacture as much as a dozen times or more -- when raw metal is sold to a bolt-maker, when a bolt is sold to a carburetor manufacturer, when the carburetor is sold to the engine maker, when the engine is sold to the auto assembler, when the auto is sold to the dealer, and so on.
Consequently, European productivity is actually taxed higher than U.S. productivity. The difference is that we heavily tax the bottom line, while Europe simply taxes every line item above it, and a little of the bottom line, too.
RH, management consultant;
former member, World Trade Council of Wichita
Also, the European VAT does not work as you suggest. Although a European business does pay a VAT on everything it buys, it receives an "input tax credit" against the VAT tax it remits to the government on its own sales. To use your example, let's say that when the engine is sold to the auto assembler the engine maker charges the auto assembler 100 in VAT and when the auto assembler sells the vehicle to the dealer he charges the dealer 300 in VAT. The auto assembler remits 200 to the government because he gets credit for the 100 VAT tax he paid to the engine maker. VAT taxes are only paid once (albeit, in many small increments at each point in the supply chain) and are not duplicative as you suggest.
Sales & Use taxes, on the other hand, are duplicative because no credit is given for taxes paid to suppliers. Typically, purchases of materials that are part of the product are exempt from sales tax but everything else (supplies, office furniture, distribution equipment, flyers, software, advertising materials, et. al.) is taxable to the business purchasing them.
Is it expensive to do business here? Yes. It's also the biggest market and one of the most stable countries in the world. That's the trade-off.
Germany is doing things right. They turned themselves around and keep their people busy and fairly paid. Something about this corporate tax debate doesn't smell right.
Interestingly, look who sponsors this vid: Pfizer.
So, these companies are loyal to their shareholders first, not to their host country? I'd wager a guess as to which party the majority of these people are affiliated.
Coda: Kudos to Brad and Sky who both win the "Post of the Day" award.