. It would actually improve our economy if the Democrats would simply lower the rate.

the Aug. 24 announcement that a combined Tim Hortons and Burger King will incorporate in Canada in a so-called “tax inversion” to dodge America’s high corporate tax rates. Last year, both chains paid about 27 per cent of their profits in taxes

rickyp wrote:fate

. It would actually improve our economy if the Democrats would simply lower the rate.

I guess the economy would be really strong then if the tax rate was zero.

There are lots of countries where high tax rates have not effected economic growth. Including the US in the past.

Repeating the nostrum that high tax rates are to blame for a poor economy is the same knee jerk nonsense that started the nonsense about the Burger King move....

Having a high corporate tax rate causes businesses to do what has been termed "inversion," moving their corporate HQ to a country with a lower rate. Now, how that is "good" for an economy is something i would LOVE to see you explain.

rickyp wrote:fate

Having a high corporate tax rate causes businesses to do what has been termed "inversion," moving their corporate HQ to a country with a lower rate. Now, how that is "good" for an economy is something i would LOVE to see you explain.

Inversion does not mean the actual operating company moves. Often only a small office staff.
So the only thing being lost to the economy is the tax dollars.

At the same time that the company, retains all the benefits of operating primarily in the US, beenfits that include all of the taxation infrastructure.
Tax structures and law can change to eliminate the benefits pretty easily. For instance a VAT could be added that keeps tax money from transactions in the company, in the company and replaces much of the corporate tax...

Or coroporate tax law could change to something similar in Canada where corporate taxes for Canadian taxes are paid AFTER corporate taxes are paid by operating divisions in foreign countries.
It isn't a choice of lower taxes or higher taxes... Its a choice of taxation policy and regulations.
As much as you want to make it a simple minded choice...

The only thing stopping congress from changing tax structures and law is political will.

The only thing stopping that political will is the amount of money corporations provide to the policial machine.

Corporations are lobbying to prevent Congress from lowering the tax rate on . . . corporations???

Former U.S. Senators Trent Lott and John Breaux are part of a lobbying effort by companies that want to preserve the option of reducing their corporate taxes by moving their legal addresses overseas.
Nine U.S. companies that have sought cross-border mergers for tax reasons, are considering doing so or are targets of such deals have been pressuring lawmakers since April on legislation to stop the practice, federal disclosure reports show.

Profitable corporations are supposed to pay a 35 percent federal income tax rate on their U.S. profits. But many corporations pay far less, or nothing at all, because of the many tax loopholes and special breaks they enjoy. This report documents just how successful many Fortune 500 corporations have been at using these loopholes and special breaks over the past five years
As a group, the 288 corporations examined paid an effective federal income tax rate of just 19.4 percent over the five-year period — far less than the statutory 35 percent tax rate.

• Twenty-six of the corporations, including Boeing, General Electric, Priceline.com and Verizon, paid no federal income tax at all over the five year period. A third of the corporations (93) paid an effective tax rate of less than ten percent over that period.

• Of those corporations in our sample with significant offshore profits, two thirds paid higher corporate tax rates to foreign governments where they operate than they paid in the U.S. on their U.S. profits.

These findings refute the prevailing view inside the Washington, D.C. Beltway that America’s corporate income tax is more burdensome than the corporate income taxes levied by other countries, and that this purported (but false) excess burden somehow makes the U.S. “uncompetitive.”

Other Findings:
• One hundred and eleven of the 288 companies (39 percent of them) paid zero or less in federal income taxes in at least one year from 2008 to 2012.
• The sectors with the lowest effective corporate tax rates over the five-year period were utilities (2.9 percent), industrial machinery (4.3 percent), telecommunications (9.8 percent), oil, gas and pipelines (14.4 percent), transportation (16.4 percent), aerospace and defense (16.7 percent) and financial (18.8 percent).
• The tax breaks claimed by these companies are highly concentrated in the hands of a few very large corporations. Just 25 companies claimed $174 billion in tax breaks over the five years between 2008 and 2012. That’s almost half the $364 billion in tax subsidies claimed by all of the 288 companies in our sample.
• Five companies — Wells Fargo, AT&T, IBM, General Electric, and Verizon — enjoyed over $77 billion in tax breaks during this five-year period.

“There are a lot of reasons why tax reform is stuck in Congress, and one of them is because big companies with vested interests want it to be stuck,” said Adam Rappaport, a senior counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which flagged the Medtronic lobbying activity

rickyp wrote:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-08/companies-bulk-lobbying-as-obama-seeks-to-curb-inversions.html

“There are a lot of reasons why tax reform is stuck in Congress, and one of them is because big companies with vested interests want it to be stuck,” said Adam Rappaport, a senior counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which flagged the Medtronic lobbying activity

you're a simpleton Fate.
and simple cocepts (sic) seem to be all you can cope with...
When the arguement (sic) over "inversion" becomes about lower or higher corporate taxes ...it serves the purpose of corporations.

Doctor Fate wrote:Corporations are lobbying to prevent Congress from lowering the tax rate on . . . corporations???

Try and focus.

Former U.S. Senators Trent Lott and John Breaux are part of a lobbying effort by companies that want to preserve the option of reducing their corporate taxes by moving their legal addresses overseas.
Nine U.S. companies that have sought cross-border mergers for tax reasons, are considering doing so or are targets of such deals have been pressuring lawmakers since April on legislation to stop the practice, federal disclosure reports show.

rickyp wrote:the other notable is that few large US corporations pay the corporate tax rate....
And its their lobbying efforts that keep them sheltered from taxes.
So again,the noise about "high taxes" is just smoke to keep dopes like you thinking simple.

rickyp wrote:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-08/companies-bulk-lobbying-as-obama-seeks-to-curb-inversions.html

“There are a lot of reasons why tax reform is stuck in Congress, and one of them is because big companies with vested interests want it to be stuck,” said Adam Rappaport, a senior counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which flagged the Medtronic lobbying activity

you're a simpleton Fate.
and simple cocepts seem to be all you can cope with...
When the arguement over "inversion" becomes about lower or higher corporate taxes ...it serves the purpose of corporations.

rickyp wrote:Lobbyists are controlling the agenda in Congress on Tax reform. Period.
And they desperately ant the debate on "inversion" in be only about the corporate tax rate.
They don't want other remedies or regulations that could end inversion to be discussed.
To that end, they want the debate simple.

For the same reason lobbyists don't really want tax reform. Because the effective rate most large corporations now pay is far below what they actually pay.
In reality, most corporations are reasonably happy with their tax situation or inversions would be significantly more frequent.(SOme inversions re ocurring so that corporations with liability issues want to move to jurisdictions where they are more greatly insulated from liabilites like enviromnetal damage...) Holding up the threat of inversion is a wonderful PR club because its a simple thought. Our taxes are too high.... And the only way to battle Inversions is to lower taxes.

Which is total baloney....

Ray Jay wrote:The reason inversions don't happen more frequently is that they only work in certain situations. Most US Corporations spend way too much time planning against the high US tax rates. They are not always successful.

An FT analysis of US tax laws shows that Mr Ballmer could claim about half of the purchase price in current terms over the next 15 years against his taxable income. The credits can be claimed under a little-known feature of the tax code covering so-called active owners of sports franchises. The exemption for sports teams was brought into law about a decade ago to resolve concerns over how media rights were accounted for, tax experts said. But they also create a powerful incentive for wealthy individuals to indulge in projects they are passionate about, in effect subsidised by the US government.