Another snort-inducer: Obama to crack down on tax cheats
Treasury Department tax cheat Tim Geithner already announced this knee-slapper initiative in March. The White House follows up today with the details of the crackdown on corporate tax cheats:
President Obama on Monday spelled out his plans to close corporate tax loopholes on U.S. multinational corporations and crack down on overseas tax havens.
The goal is to help create new jobs in the United States and make the tax code fairer.
But tax policy experts and corporate lobbyists say such measures, unless accompanied by a reduction in the corporate tax rate, will push more companies to move their operations — and jobs – overseas to more tax friendly countries.
The White House and Treasury Department laid out three proposals that they say will eliminate the current tax advantages U.S.-based multinationals get for investing and creating jobs abroad.
Where’s that Timmy G. tax cheat stamp? Yeah, there it is.
***
Obama says he can squeeze $210 billion from multinationals.
Tech firms overwhelmingly supported Obama. Now, they are reaping what they have sown:
In the tech industry’s first major disagreement with the Obama administration, Silicon Valley companies are voicing alarm about a proposal that could require corporations to pay billions of dollars in U.S. taxes on foreign earnings.
The administration wants to change a long-standing law that allows American companies to defer paying these taxes as long as the funds are kept overseas. That could have a big impact on a number of U.S. corporations, especially tech giants such as Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems and Oracle, which report that overseas markets account for half or more of their sales.
“It’s probably our biggest concern right now. Certainly, it’s the biggest issue where we disagree with the Obama administration,” said Ralph Hellmann, senior vice president of the Information Technology Industry Council, an industry lobbying group.
“On a Richter scale of 1 to 10, this is about a 20,” added Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, who is leading a delegation of valley executives to Washington this week. They plan to discuss the deferral proposal and several other issues with federal officials and congressional leaders.
Currently, many big companies avoid paying U.S. taxes on revenue from foreign subsidiaries by reinvesting the money overseas, either by parking cash in various accounts or by plowing it back into foreign operations.
Without the deferral provision, for example, Google might have been required to pay an additional $1 billion last year on a tax bill that amounted to roughly $1.6 billion, according to a regulatory filing made by the company.
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- Obama’s Restructuring of America: No More Tax Havens, Loopholes — I Guess They Somehow Hurt the Lower Classes « Quick Daily Hits (Politics and Such)
- Obama’s Restructuring of America: No More Tax Havens, Loopholes — Guess They Somehow Hurt the Lower Classes « Quick Daily Hits (Politics and Such)
- Obamarama! Let’s enjoy Barack’s gaffes, mistakes, blunders and the other stupid stuff in his first 100 days « Jim Blazsik
- Jeremiah Films
- Bloodthirsty Liberal » Not Worth the Cheap Suit He’s Dressed In
- The war on corporate America by Obama continues - Obama plans corporate tax crackdown | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- Obama to Destroy More Jobs | Patriotic Dissent
- May the Fourth Be With You « Obi’s Sister
- Transcript: Obama Preaches Against Tax Havens And Tax LoopHoles |
- Lady Sings the News: Ballad of Tim ‘Tax Cheat’ Geithner « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Hot Air » Blog Archive » Erin Burnett: You have an “obligation” to pay as little tax as possible
- Random-American » Tax Cheats and Hypocrisy
- President Obama goes after tax Cheats again: This time Corporate America « Smart and silly
- Hard Starboard
- Obama To Close Tax Loophole « Beltway Snark
- Michelle Malkin » Dear tech execs, you reap what you sow
- Nightly Ramble: The “Back to School” edition | BitsBlog
- Obama Cares About Catching Tax Cheats? « Tai-Chi Policy
- Dearth and Taxes « Grand Rants
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They’ll move their company overseas, morons! You know, like they did during the Carter years?
Since, corporations don’t pay taxes…Why should they care what rate it is ? Under their economic model, people don’t change what they do based on the tax code…Like cig taxes…Oh, bootlegging ? never mind…
sarc
B-cat,
that is the goal. more union control over those that remain
jeff obambi is going after repatriatian of $ which is something he faught against in the past as have most dims,
but MM is too busy to provide us links to the whole picture right now she is busy.
FEED LOT CARPET!!!!
The GOAL is taking more money, more effectively.
How do you make jobs by taking more money from job producers?!?!?!?!
Bans;
MM is a mom and wife. I expect she has other relations as well. For all we know, somebody is ill.
BHO really doesn’t stop and listen to himself. He’s going to crackdown on tax cheats? He’d have to fire his staff!
On May 4th, 2009 at 11:52 am, Jeff2161 said:
Jeff is right about this. Corporations don’t pay taxes. ONLY INDIVIDUALS PAY TAXES We should do away with corporate income taxes and end the corporate excuse of using a corporate tax rate increase as a reason for raising prices. When there is a tax rate increase, corporations are going to raise their prices, but we, as consumers, have no way of knowing if the price hikes are equal to the increased cost of the tax or only a small portion of the resulting price hike. The tax rate increase just gives the corporations the perfect cover for raising their prices and blaming the price increase on the increased cost of doing business due to the tax rate increase. With no corporate income tax, that pretext is taken away from the companies and they would have to come up with a new excuse for increasing their prices. In the end, individuals are the only ones paying taxes because individuals are the only one who can’t pass a tax increase on to someone else. THE BUCK STOPS THERE.
The experts are exactly right. This plan amounts to little more than a tax increase and for every additional penny the government may or may not realize in revenue, outlays will eat up all of it and then some with increases in unemployment and a demand for government-funded safety net services, like food stamps and unemployment benefits.
This “plan” is going to cost the US jobs and tax revenue. It’s dumb!
But they appear to have gotten the wording right this time–they don’t say they are going after tax cheats. So why is that the theme in the title of this thread?
Remember ONE of the FEW big agreements by the G20 a few weeks ago???
It was agreeing to pressure tax havens.
How, EXACTLY, does that do ANYTHING to help a nation’s economic vigor????
Answer: IT DOES NOTHING BUT HELP ASSURE MORE EFFECTIVE CONFISCATION OF WEALTH.
Great. Now get the kid to cut another penny in half. At this rate, the deficit Obingo is creating will be erased in the next ice age.
Everyone nees to stop picking on Barry. He is such a nice lad. And he has a lovely wife, chidren, mother-in-law and dog. Everyone is just so jealous of them all……
***GAG**** VOMIT*****
Fire him and send him to Hawaii. Let him pay THOSE taxes, as well as his federal ones.
With each passing day, my BP rises, as well as the temperature of my blood. Soon it will be advantageous to use the Kelvin scale.
That’s right. Then TEH ONE will want to try to tax them just for doing business in the U.S.
O-BOZO is a typical LIB… You have a “GOLDEN GOOSE”, what do you do with it??? Why, you kill it of course… Real BRIGHT from the country that has the SECOND HIGHEST corporate tax rates in the world… Reminds me of a piece I saw the other day… Headline, SAUDIS WOULD BE HAPPY WITH $70.00 a barrel oil… Too bad they weren’t concerned at 70 when it went to 147 a barrel… Saw a bumper sticker in TULSA many years ago, during the GREAT OIL BUST of the 80s… “DEAR GOD, PLEASE GIVE ME ANOTHER OIL BOOM, AND I PROMISE NOT TO PISS IT AWAY”…
bansharia – I think your comment was rude.
I am upset with Tim Geithner. I spent $12 on my TAX CHEAT rubber stamp, and I have yet to see any dollar bills with Timmy’s name on them. I am ready to stamp and can’t. With the government printing money like crazy you would think I could get at least one.
Perhaps, a bail-out ?
Corporate taxes are just more out of we the taxpayers pockets. All costs of doing business get passed on to consumers. So it’s just another way to tax all people, including the poor.
Obama thinks (he says) this restoration of “fairness and balance” will bring 210 billion of confiscated wealth into the coffers of government over ten years.
How many billions or trillions will it push out of our economy in the next five years?
Giant sucking sound in 3…2…1…
As someone who benefited from the tax ‘incentives’ – the 2+ years we lived in Mexico, we received 1/4-1/3 of my husband’s salary in lump sums on our income tax, as ‘tax equalization’ – the first year he was in Europe, it was ~ $7,000.00 {we paid off his vehicle with it} – the second year in Europe {his last OCONUS}, we had to pay back $7,000.00 of OUR taxes to HIS company …………….. more & more, I’m becoming “radicalized” to abolish the IRS & go to a strict ‘consumption tax’ ……………..
Semper Fi’
DM
It should take him a year or so to get through his staff and appointees.
210 Billion…. and that will barely cover a days interest on our debt…
*no, I didn’t actually calculate it. I’ll let someone else figure out just how much per day it costs to be in debt 10 trillion freaking dollars!!!!
Not to mention that the administration is also saying this:
Joy;
That does not count the projected short-falls in commitments for SS, Medicare and Medicaid. Those are in the hundreds of trillions.
I asked this on another thread; who can tell me why I should not be concerned that we are headed for a depression?
No one has answered because there are no good answers.
off topic
http://www.floppingaces.net/2009/05/02/missing-condi/
One tax cheat going after other tax cheats? Is there no honor among thieves?
The IRS has always presumed that you were guilty unless you can prove yourself innocent. How do you prove you didn’t do something?
Once upon a time, taxation had only one purpose: to pay the expenses of government. Now, with lobbies and special interests, armed with campaign contributions, lined up like pigs at the feeding trough, the Internal Revenue Code has become just another federal earmark program that has nothing to do with fairness.
Choice.
The American Revolution was never about bringing the British Empire to its knees.
But the Communist Party USA views capitalism and the U.S. as “imperialism” and seek the end of this “Empire”…
And what comes after winning socialism?
Communism.
Lenin himself said so…
No-Brainer prediction:
Not only will this nonsense NOT bring in $240 Billion, it will actually wind up a net negative as more U.S. companies realize it no longer makes sense to BE a U.S. company and leave, taking their tax payments with them.
On May 4th, 2009 at 1:18 pm, nbarry said:
True.
And thanks to LBJ’s Unconstitutional Amendment to an IRS bill, threats of revoking tax-exempt status are used to restrict free speech, in direct violation of the first amendment.
On May 4th, 2009 at 1:28 pm, jjmurphy said:
And I believe the Democratic Socialist Communists are fully aware of this.
It’s all part of intentionally bringing the U.S.A. “Empire” to its knees.
And it seems destroying America is the one thing they are VERY good at!
Hey guys! Obama’s not lyin’! This will create new jobs…
There. You. Go.
*sigh* I figured I’d do the crazy-work of the brain-dead libs and pull that one out so we can get it out of the way.
Physician, heal thyself!
Tax law is generally considered “administrative” law. Thus, the IRS has always been allowed to haul you in front of an “administrative” judge where you may be legally presumed guilty and asked to prove your innocence. You still go to big boy jail.
The idea that the administration is putting forward doesn’t change the basic thinking of our legal system – it amplifies the effectiveness of the sharp end. Thus allowing Blue Lips & Co. to bring us totalitarianism with fewer pesky impediments (that’d be us, folks).
Sorry, forgot to complete the thought: “You still go to Big Boy Jail, unless you are a high level Dem.”
There, fixed it.
As a candidate, Mr. Obama was going to have ExxonMobil pay for everything. Everything. All you hearts desires.
Guess its ExxonMobil and friends now.
Hedge funds also overwhelmingly supported Obama. Maybe we can stop wringing our hands at their plight.
The so called Tax Loophole as defined by our Tax Cheat Treasury Secretary is a misleading campaign to promote class envy.
Corporations doing business overseas are required to pay local taxes in those foreign countries for the profits they make there.
What Odumbo wants to do is force companies to pay taxs on overseas profits, because the foreign tax rate paid by the companies is lower than the US.
Correct definition for such a practice is called “Double taxation”.
This is very inaccurate and wholly wrong with respect to criminal tax matters.
If they want to criminally prosecute you for tax evasion, there is first an administrative review. But it still has to get referred to DOJ or US Attorney’s Office, and is heard in a regular District Court, with standard burdens of proof and rules of evidence.
But wait! That’s not all!
I just heard from my brother-in-law, preparing to move back to the States from an assignment to Germany with the Navy, that military are now taxed on foreign goods bought during their assignments. So, while the Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA) with host countries exempts American military members stationed on their soil from the Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods, Obummer’s government now wants them to pay it to Uncle Sam! There goes one of the benefits from serving overseas…
I have to gently take the estimable CiE to task for perpetrating the IRS myth.
First, I personally know of two…and only two…reasons for which people go to jail relative to the IRS–
1) tax evasion, which involves an affirmative act, usually of fraud. People who just “forget to file” are not…in my experience…prosecuted criminally.
2) non-payment of withholding taxes collected by an employer. The employer holds those funds in trust for the govt, and they will prosecute for that.
Administrative law judges, or magistrates, do sit in judgment of tax cases. They do not…again in my experience…preside over criminal cases.
A criminal case for tax violations does not employ the “guilty until proven innocent” presumption.
I know of few things that do. Strangely, they all involve money the govt. wants. If the IRS alleges you owe them money, you get to prove you don’t. If the IRS says you had an income (”imputing” income) you get to prove you didn’t. If the govt. seizes a large amount of cash from you, you get to prove it is yours, AND you earned it legitimately.
Absolutely. That’s how an audit works.
I would trust Rags on this…
Something tells me he has studied this intimately.
If you don’t like the IRS’s determination, you can take them to court where the case is heard de novo. That means they have to prove their case, and no presumptive weight is given to the IRS’s determination.
The people that HAVE the gold, make the rules. The net effect of these “new tax policies” to “catch the tax evaders” will be this: The victims will pass along their losses to the little guy in one of two ways, viz. 1) they will lay people off from their workforces, and 2) they will raise prices on the consumer goods that their coorporations and small businesses produce. In both cases, it’s the little guy that ends up paying the price for Geitner and Obama’s “irrational exhuberance”.
Furthermore, in SPITE of Obama’s rhetoric, he KNOWS that this is exactly what is going to happen — and guess what?
My collie says:
Exactly.
I smell a shakedown…
The sad thing is that it has come to this stage where the USA has put up a (figurative) barbed-wired wall to keep money in this country. Hmmm…reminds me of the Russians and Germany for some reason.
Ala Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton.
Tech companies think the proposed taxing is a concern?
They need to pay closer attention to Senate Bill 773…
– MuscleDaddy
What is exactly wrong with paying taxes on revenue earned in America? When revenue is earned in another country, that revenue is taxed by that nation, too. And, revenue earned in one country should not be taxed by another country.
Is this a good, or a bad, idea?
And, these companies should not be characterized as tax cheats, because they are following the law, and rules.
Even if the companies were to move, the revenue generated in that country by that company still should be taxed where it was earned.
Chaps’ stuff is good. De novo in legal terms means something “brand new”…like the earlier procedure didn’t happen.
The great bar to taking a IRS determination to Dist. Court is $$$.
Usually, they win by default, because so few of us can stand the cost of fighting them. That is one of their greatest advantages.
Which is why STARVE THE BEAST will involve an organic legal team.
Due process can be a bitch…and that sword cuts both ways. A system already in stress can be overwhelmed with relatively few new, opposed cases.
From that Bill:
“The Secretary of Commerce—
(1) shall have access to all relevant data concerning such networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access;”
What are those networks? They are any networks the President designates!
Please people, go to #55 and read the linked page! This is The Fascist at work.
Chaps’ stuff is good. De novo in legal terms means something “brand new”…like the earlier procedure didn’t happen.
The great bar to taking a IRS determination to Dist. Court is $$$.
Usually, they win by default, because so few of us can stand the cost of fighting them. That is one of their greatest advantages.
Which is why STARVE THE BEAST will involve an organic legal team.
Due process can be a batch…and that sword cuts both ways. A system already in stress can be overwhelmed with relatively few new, opposed cases.
I can attest to that one. Even if you do prove you do not owe the money good luck. Once in their system, it is on autopilot. The cascading effect is – you get screwed if you cannot afford a good attorney. If you owe less than $10k and you earned under $50k, the IRS knows you cannot fight them so just suck it up, pay quickly or they will run your bill up double with late fees and interest.
Is it any wonder Jesus didn’t think much of tax collectors?
Of course they are also going to go after Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, right?
Never mind……
Rags,
Again, we are talkin’ the same language. There is a huge difference between administrative cases and criminal cases. IRS can hit you both ways. You go to the same jail one way or another if you are convicted. The big difference is the presumption of guilt.
I’m an immigration officer – we have a similar system. Even if you commit a criminal act, the Government can choose to attack the case administratively. The accused winds up in the same place but with far fewer rights and almost no opportunity for defense..
My point of this is that by making the administrative attack more flexible, the Government has a much easier time using this path for political purposes. That scares hell out of me.
First, I love you, man.
But, you’re mistaken about criminal penalties imposed around taxes.
They HAVE to be imposed…if at all…under the whole due process panoply, including the presumption of innocence. The IRS doesn’t bring criminal charges.
I can’t speak to your experiences with immigration law. I don’t practice in that field, thank goodness.
With that part, I TOTALLY agree!!!
Really? I guess I bought in to the myth.
Nope, Immigration has administrative judges we get to choose which path to take.
I am corrected.. Thanks.
And yep, ImmLaw sucks – on both sides.
Most Americans do. We have been very carefully conditioned to think of the IRS as our worst nightmare, when in truth they are a very stressed bureaucracy, working with imperfect information, that is fought and defeated every day all around the nation.
If they were pushed by a concerted campaign of civil disobedience, the whole machine…top to bottom…would be overwhelmed.
#55 – the link will rattle your teeth by reading it. Sent it out to those I know working in the industry.
‘Bambi going after tax cheats using offshore accounts – does that include the Kennedy’s? Read somewhere most of their money is dispursed around the world in various trust accounts. Also, don’t forget the Heinz fortune. Wonder how they protect it? Inquiring minds want to know.
Good luck going after multinational corporations Bambi. They have lawyers, good ones, who will tear the IRS a new one.I laughed out loud at this one. I’m sure they are quaking in their shoes. Chrysler and soon GM will be foreign companies and the will ignore the morons in DC and do what they want with their money.
I get it. It’s all about Obama’s sense of balance. For example, trim a few million off the budget? Balance it by increasing spending by several billion. Save/create 150,000 jobs? Balance it by send a million or so jobs overseas to other countries.
On May 4th, 2009 at 2:29 pm, Milwaukee Mike said:
Yes. A Chicago Communist shakedown.
Rip Ford:
When The One proclaimed the Stimulus Package had saved 150,000 jobs it was too bad there wasn’t a reporter who remembers the joke where the mother tells her kids they had better eat their dinner because “There are millions of starving kids in XXX (and names some 3rd world country).”
One of the kids responds, “Name two.”
I can see the TOTUS starting to smoke as someone scrambles to put together a coherent response.
Ireland, with its 19% corporate rate, has the red carpet out again. The only thing the U.S. knows how to do, anymore, is tax everything. All problems can be solved by raising taxes. The politicians have no brains for anything else.
http://iusbvision.wordpress.com/2006/12/06/the-irish-miracle-how-ireland-went-from-economic-basket-case-to-masterpiece/
This is how you take an economic basket-case, in a war and hate-torn land with little resources…
to a miracle.
It is not rocket science.
Bad link, rags.
Worked for me…
If you refer to content, why?
Why do I feel like, Tim Geithner and Barack Obama are on the same bowling team
To clarify the issue of double taxation of foreign source income, the Internal Revenue Code allows a foreign tax credit on income taxed by foreign countries based on a formula as per Form 1116 for individuals and Form 1118 for corporations. Often, tax treaties with foreign countries govern what is subject to these breaks. This still does not absolve Congress from applying the KISS principle to tax legislation. (Keep It Simple, Stupid.)
speaking of cheats …
He “saved” the US auto industry by sending it to Europe. It’s so….George Bush…
Finally, Obama is doing sometning at which he can succeed. Its easy! Most of the tax cheats are easy to locate and are in his cabinet and administration. Go for it Obi baby!
The Congressional Budget Office predicts that government debt will peak around 54 percent of GDP in 2011.
But Buffett told CNBC Monday morning that the ratio could surpass 80 percent — unless there are significant spending cuts or tax increases.
After a testy exchange with Sen. Judd Gregg, who suggested that President Obama’s plans to hike federal spending would only increase the nation’s staggering national debt, Buffett relented by stating that, in the end, the U.S. government simply will do what every other government has done in such circumstances.
“A country that continuously expands its debt as a percentage of GDP and raises much of the money abroad to finance that, at some point, it’s going to inflate its way out of the burden of that debt,” Buffett said.
Hell must be close to freezing over. A piece of legislation from the Messiah that I actually agree with. As a recent high tech high paid employee who lost their job due to offshoring (sorry Barry, it isn’t a low tech low paying job), closing some of these loopholes that put american workers at a disadvantage is long overdue. It isn’t a free market when your own goverment sets policy that puts both workers and businesses at a disadvantage.
Uh oh! Does this mean he’s going after the Kennedy Trust Funds that are currently enjoying tax-free status in sheltered accounts in the Bahamas? Does he also plan to go after Georgie Soros, who purposely established his companies overseas to avoid U.S. tax liabilities? Don’t hold your breath.