Obama: Companies that avoid taxes are renouncing citizenship
President Barack Obama plans to go on the offensive later Thursday against companies that use cross-border mergers to avoid U.S. taxes, accusing them of essentially renouncing their American citizenship to shield profits. Bloomberg reports Obama will say in Los Angeles that companies using so-called inversions benefit from the economic advantages of being in the U.S. while adding to the tax burden of middle-class families. Democrats have called for action to stop inversions but analysts say near-term chances of legislation being enacted are very low.
Renouncing citizenship would appear to be a heinous crime, similar to treason. One such criminal, Peter Dunn, also appeared in a MarketWatch article by Al Lewis:
Tax man makes it hard to be an American, Commentary: Tough IRS rules hit the little guys hard
I feel honoured to be in a special class of criminal merely for exercising my universal and fundamental right to change my nationality.
“What’s legal might not be right.” ?
Then change the tax laws!
The reality is that the tax law makes it perfectly legal – and good business – to “invert”.
Americans are such idiots. They love capitalism right up to the point where it undermines the socialism they enjoy and swear up and down they don’t have.
This is a bs propaganda paper tiger issue for the mid-term elections. Nothing will happen to any company but the mindless masses will be more anti expat than ever. Great.
“They love capitalism right up to the point where it undermines the socialism they enjoy and swear up and down they don’t have.”
That was good. They are also so brainwashed that they actually believe they are free. America is one of the most repressive countries in the world, but the public is in total denial.
Nobody is more enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
FromTheWilderness, They already have. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and his bosom buddy Senator Bernie Sanders have already attempted to paint expats as “traitors to their country”.
http://youtu.be/8Y-u0UnKZ_U?t=22m22s – complete and utter vomit.
@The_Animal, they aren’t done. We should probably brace ourselves (or begin adding more curses to our vocabulary to better express ourselves).
This is generally what we’re up against — the inaccurate story of the American wealthy traitor expat that the people of the USA are fed and believe and the reason the media uses “tax cheat”, “traitor” to paint and criminalize ALL *US Persons* in other countries.
What an opportunity in their rants to also educate rather than threaten by innuendo the homelanders that they too will be trashed with US citizenship-based taxation law should they even think of leaving the bounds of the USA. They might also let them know that the rest of the world taxes residents of their countries.
It is the same message that Canada’s Conservative government is supporting when it calls one million plus their families and affected business partners “US citizens who happen to reside in Canada.”
If the U.S. had the FairTax, companies would be clammering to get into the U.S. instead of finding ways to get the heck out of Dodge.
We have customerily had stupid politicians and stupid people do stupid things, but this crop is more than stupid, they are morons. They would rather have campaign contributions, than have a tax system that would provide the revenue to operate the government and no extorted campaign contributions.
Sovereign Man: Obama’s dumbest move to date… seizing a foreign bank??
http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/obamas-dumbest-move-to-date-14735/
The US dollar usage agreement:
To trade with the US dollar, you must agree to all the whims of the US Government, past, present, or in future. If you fall foul of the US Government’s whims, they will fine your financial institutions or companies, extradite your citizens back to the US, arrest them at US airports, implement regulations, such as FATCA, that the rest of your country must fund, or possibly use military force to maintain the dollar standard.
And the butt heads in DC wonder why the BRICs have just set up their own IMF/World Bank?
FromTheWilderness, interesting but the whole thing is really. The stalemate in the Ukraine, sudden lack of support for Israel and this new war on US companies who invert. Gotta wonder what’s afoot.
I’m looking up more and more curse words as I quickly as I can, Yogagirl. ~evil expression~.
FromTheWilderness – what’s scary is that article, which will be written off as conspiracy theorizing by people scheming to keep us cattle, deaf dumb and stupid; holds a lot of truth. For too many years, I thought the United States was our friend; that I would defend it to all those who would speak ill against it. Now I’m awake and seeing it through new eyes – that it is a rabid dog that needs to be quickly and decisively put down with a bullet through the brain.
…as per above, Petros, et al. Watch for my name to pop up on the next “NO-FLY” list. Whoopie. I’m not worried. I have a car and I don’t intend to go south of the border. I’ll take one step into that godforsaken country after HELL (PG – Purgatory) freezes over and that probably ain’t going to be any time soon.
Enjoyed this read.
http://nomadcapitalist.com/2014/07/23/corporate-inversion-company-renounces-us-citizenship/
Watching CNBC with Grover Norquest regarding tax reform and the stupidity of CBT….and a disgusting interview with Obama …who said when asked what’s the upper limit on taxes and he said he has ‘no limit’ in mind….Grover said there is NO relationship between being patriotic and paying taxes…this guy really pushed back hard and said his mind…Good job Grover!
There is an uncomfortable, recurring thought that surfaces each time I see these “patriot” pro-FATCA senators and representatives unleashing their vile tirades: that they are most often lawyers, like Levin and Schumer; that they have never served in the arm forces of the country they profess to love ( to wit, Levin, Schumer and Sanders), and … I could go on, but I won’t. Those able to read between the lines will guess at what is meant.
Could it be that these bilious types, who ducked serving during Viet Nam, are now blustering and ranting against those who did (and who chose thereafter to leave Amerika) – a classic example of Freudian displacement? Feeling guilty still about hiding out in law school with their rotten deferments, while others fought and died? (This renders disgusting Sanders’ ludicrously laughable rave about young men dying!)
My guess is that these self-appointed “defenders of liberty” are playing the old shell game – diverting attention from their own lack of patriotism when the chips were down, by pointing their fingers at those vulnerable to congressional demagogic tripe, in the hope that their own basal lack of patriotism will be ignored.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Levin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Schumer
@Martin Buscar
Could be. One of the key people who advocated for CBT 80-100 years ago became hyperpatriotic partly to make up for his father’s having dodged the draft in the Civil War.
@MartinBuscar
Interesting perspective. The human psyche is fascinating, and somehow oftentimes so tragic.
I wouldn’t call it “tragic” in this case. In the case of Bernie Sanders, I’d call it “opportunistic”. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a vile human piece of detritus who wants what his party wants, even if other people have to go financially destitute to do it.
Building dams and walls, is the ‘Regressive’ and dare I say, ‘Repressive’ outcome of FATCAnatics “Progressive” ways http://onforb.es/1tQgqbM via @Forbes Patriotism, the last refuge of the scondral
@Just Me, Thanks for the tip: http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/07/27/obama-calls-offshore-deals-unpatriotic-yet-funds-investors-boards-jump-aboard/?commentId=comment_blogAndPostId/blog/comment/1057-29388-7014
And, more of the same garbage from the WaPo, written by yet another journalist who doesn’t understand the difference between leaving the U.S. and renouncing citizenship, and wants to conflate it with corporate inversions and portray everyone who does it as rich tax cheats:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/07/25/should-you-leave-the-u-s-for-lower-taxes-an-interactive-guide-to-legal-tax-arbitrage/
@Eric This Washington Post Article is misinformed. The decision tree it provides appears to assume the USP is living in the U.S. The answer to:: Are you worth more than $2 million, or do you make more than $157,000 per year? If you say no, then the answer says it is not worth it to renounce. Really. Someone needs to get on the authors twitter handle and set them straight.
More from WaPo — the Corporate Version of the US Witch Hunt : “Name and Shame” list of US company “inversions”
The Obama administration and many lawmakers agree that tax inversions, shelters and all other manor of tax alchemy are an outgrowth of a broken corporate tax code. Yet they say the failings of the tax system are no excuse for companies not to pay their fair share.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee recently posted a nifty chart of companies that have inverted to lower their tax bills since 1983. We took the information a step further by adding where the companies moved their headquarters, and when available how much revenue they earned last year.
American companies that have incorporated overseas: While not an exhaustive list the chart below demonstrates the increasing pace at which companies are relocating their headquarters overseas, a move that can lower their tax rate. In some cases, the companies have since been acquired by others, ceased to exist or have changed their names.
And, here’s some good hypocrisy: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-06/obama-let-delphi-avoid-taxes-in-tactic-president-assails.html