Congratulations President Obama and once again, great job!
Listened to fathole Rush for 5 minutes yesterday blathering on about how unAmerican it was of Obama to close corporate tax loopholes like inversion. Was hoping he’d have an on-air heart attack.
Allergan itself is the result of multiple inversions, and despite its Dublin address is operated from offices in Parsippany, New Jersey.
We have a term for that. It’s called “money laundering.”
Cue up the Republican claims of “executive overreach” in 5…4…3…2…1…
I was surprised by the New Yorker’s Financial Page column a few weeks ago. I always learn a lot from the level-headed and smart James Surowieki. He says that as a practical matter, it really is time to reform the tax code in favor of corporations:
Corporations certainly play the patriotism card when it suits their purposes. But their real loyalty is to the bottom line. And while Congress could take measures to curb inversions in the short run—Hillary Clinton, for instance, has proposed a steep “exit tax” on any company that inverts—those measures merely postpone a necessary reckoning. The world economy has changed. The U.S. tax system needs to change, too.
Here is a link:
Bravo Obama for demonstrating the power of his office even when the congress attempts to handcuff him.
The other solution would be to get other countries on board with not being pushovers for companies.
The big problem (imo) is that the US nominal corporate tax rate is not low, so that if you don’t do some fancy footwork you pay a noticeable tax on profits. If you do the right footwork, or you are in an industry that’s favored, not so much.
With the Pfizer deal, what they’re basically saying is “We’re going to have to focus on making money by selling products rather than by financial enigneering.” Which is a sad thing for a company to have to say.
One more piece of evidence – as if we needed any – of the eagerness of the neoliberal Obama administration and its minions’ to bend over for Big Pharma as part of the Wall Street revolving door policy to favor the supply side plutocrats and their neocon bankster overlords …
What’s that? Oh.
Never mind.