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PrintWith an eye to the looming fiscal cliff, Washington is making important decisions on whether taxes should be higher or lower — but many companies aren’t even paying what they owe. In 2008, the Government Accountability Office reported that at least 83 of the top 100 publicly traded corporations in the U.S., such as Boeing and GE, use offshore tax havens to avoid paying federal taxes.
There are some tough budget decisions ahead, but closing the offshore tax loopholes that let large companies shift their tax burden to the rest of us should be an easy one.
We can’t afford tax haven loopholes, especially now. We can’t continue losing the revenue every year as the deficit grows and grows. Our elected leaders need to close these corporate tax loopholes. This is a solution that legislators of both parties should come together to support.
Alec Sprague is a Midwest Federal field organizer for the Missouri Public Interest Research Group.
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Comments
"83 of the top 100 publicly traded corporations in the U.S., such as Boeing and GE, use offshore tax havens to avoid paying federal taxes."
Half of Americans own stock, so a lot of average Joes and Janes profit from those 83 corporations. They also buy products from them, as do the half of Americans who don't own stock.
What happens if those corporations have to pay higher taxes? They pass that cost onto shareholders and customers. So by advocating closing loopholes, you're advocating a tax increase on a lot of average Joes and Janes -- maybe even you. Check to see whether any of them are in your retirement portfolio.
Re: Paying taxes.
Is it really true that 18 democrat senators have asked for a delay in implementation of the medical device tax? Here's a purported copy of the letter:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/d...
As for "loopholes", I wonder how the author feels about whether companies should get tax deductions for R&D, and whether he should get a deduction for his mortgage interest and number of dependents.
Just askin'........
As for taxing the rich, I'll think seriously about the positive merits of doing so only after someone successfully debunks the contents of the following article:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012...