Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Can Corporations Survive in the US?

Several months back, before my oldest son left for Japan, he and I watched a segment of "60 Minutes". The segment referred to the Corporate Tax Rates in the US, as compared with other countries around the world. I was floored. I had no idea that we were among the highest rates in the world. We charge almost 40% for corporations based in the US.

The show then began to discuss countries like Ireland, Iceland and Chile that had rates of 17% or less. It brought to light the fact that many corporations had set up dummy headquarters in Ireland, which charged 12.5%. Let that sink in and sit back and think about this.

If you were a CEO of a large company and were responsible for bringing as much profit to the bottom line as possible, would you "home office" in the US with almost a 40% rate or would you home office in Ireland with a third the rate? A company making $10 billion dollars a year in profits, would reflect at least a variance of $2.5 billion dollars in profits. This is a topic that needs to rise to the top of the congressional legislation and be brought to the forefront immediately.

Our country's congress is so busy fighting among themselves that they don't have the time to debate or talk about issues, that could resolve our massive debt cycle. The latest request from President Obama, is for an additional $1.4 trillion dollars, which will extend our debt limit to over $16 Trillion dollars. We cannot continue this charade and leave our children with an impossible debt structure.

First of all our congress has to completely do away with the insane "Line in the Sand" mentality (and both sides are guilty of this) and sit down and start actually governing. I have been on this earth for 60 plus years and never have I seen such an embarrassing situation, among out country's politicians. Think about how other countries must perceive our inability to work together and how this hurts us in International trade.

We are upside down and importing over $40 billion a month more than we export. That is a minimum of $480 billion a year! China and its cohorts are laughing at us and taking every penny to the bank (literally). It is time for everyone to become involved in politics, regardless of your age and tell your representatives how upset you are at our country's situation and standing in the world.

Please make the effort to obtain your congressional member's name and contact info and write, email, fax or call them with your opinions. It is time the feedback and ground swell outnumbered the garbage coming out of Washington DC! We have to stop it and we have to stop it now! Please tell them to stop acting like elementary age children and tackle issues like the corporate tax rates with an urgent frame of mind. We need action now!

House of Representatives:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Us Senate:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm





1 comment:

  1. But let's be real here Mike... how many corporations do actually pay tax even if it was lower. I know for a fact that the last C-Store corporation and its owner paid less in taxes than some of his employees, thanks to all the loopholes in the tax code. Whether it is 40% or 12%, the loopholes are the problem and not the rate. I mean look at Exxon which for the last few years reported over $40 Billion in profits and hardly paid any taxes or Wal-Mart for that matter, their headquarter is in Bentonville, Arkansas and they too hardly paid any taxes... it is not the percentage Mike, it is the loopholes these corporations are taking advantage of and don't really care about being responsible Corporate Citizens. In fact the same C-Store company I mentioned above hardly gives any money to charities right in their backyard.

    It all comes back about doing the responsible thing and that is pay the taxes due and if these corporation do as some reports suggest, our deficit will be wiped out.

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