New Tax Inversion Rules!!!!!

[Alcoholic Actuary]

I know the thread title is an attention grabber, forgive my blatent sensationalism -

But, whenever I speak to my right leaning friends about the tax code and how we can't ever seem to generate enough revenue, the first solution on their minds is closing the existing tax loop holes (in lieu of actually raising any taxes because apparently our taxation levels are absolutely perfect and beyond reproach).

Well congratulations conservative masterminds!! Apparently your wish is Obama's command:

Treasury Announces Additional Action to Curb Inversions, Address Earnings Stripping

(I'm still not positive how something so exciting went 2 days without notice). What say you Fox News? Ready to talk about how proud you are of the Obama White House?

“If the president wants to address why businesses are leaving this country, he ought to address the corporate tax rate, not decide arbitrarily that he’s going to change the rules in the middle of the game,” [Fmr Texas Governor Rick] Perry told Fox News.

“In recognition of Treasury's misguided policy, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) noted that the new rules make American businesses "more attractive takeover targets for foreign corporations. Treasury is contradicting its own call to pursue a more competitive tax code in favor of shortsighted counterproductive triage."

Actually, Pfizer was going to move to Ireland to take advantage of this very loophole....

And Now They're Not.

Looks like someone at Pfizer forgot to payoff the appropriate folks at the White House. And/Or Sanders got Obama to do a little of his legwork.

aa

 

[Horatio Parker]

Let's not forget the importance of Free Trade...

It may not have a large economy, but Panama does have some of the most stringent bank secrecy laws in the world, making it extremely easy and inexpensive for U.S. citizens to set up offshore corporations and bank accounts. Establishing the corporation and bank account costs less than $2,000, and any money that Americans stash in these entities is not taxed. Bank secrecy laws and extremely lax corporate registration standards make it very difficult for the Internal Revenue Service to track transactions transferring funds to these Panamanian destinations from the United States. Small surprise, then, that Panama is home to nearly 400,000 offshore corporations, more than any other nation except Hong Kong.

“A tax haven . . . has one of three characteristics: It has no income tax or a very low-rate income tax; it has bank secrecy laws; and it has a history of noncooperation with other countries on exchanging information about tax matters,” said Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel with Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to improving U.S. tax policy. “Panama has all three of those. ... They’re probably the worst.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/panama-trade-deal_n_922398.html

And that's why the trade agreement was so damn important...

 

[ZiprHead]

The Panama Papers