Energized by a global summit meeting two weeks ago where world leaders called for a crackdown on abusive tax havens, Congress seems likely this year to debate significant elements of the federal income tax code as it affects corporations. But it’s not likely to be the debate those companies had been hoping for. Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins
A highly recommended piece that outlines overseas corporate tax debate in an even-handed, thorough manner.
Instead of negotiating the trade-offs that would be part of a broad overhaul of the corporate tax system, multinational corporate icons that employ millions of Americans — from Microsoft to Sara Lee — find themselves struggling not to be lumped together with shadowy tax offenders. And they are scrambling to distinguish their perfectly legal tax deferrals from questionable practices for the purpose of tax avoidance.
Complicating the task for multinational corporations trying to hold back the tide is the fact that deferral of taxes on profits earned overseas is a hard concept to articulate clearly — and even harder, politically, to defend. At the same time, it’s an easy issue for critics to seize upon.
“I wanted to raise the revenue to reduce the corporate rate,” Rangel said recently, although he conceded that he might have to forgo that idea in the name of advancing Obama’s agenda: “I’m not going to get uptight if he wants to use the revenue to promote his programs, which I support.”
