So they’re technically renouncing their U.S. citizenship. They’re declaring they’re based someplace else even though most of their operations are here. Some people are calling these companies “corporate deserters.”
And it’s only a few big corporations so far. …
— Barack Obama (24 July 2014) White House Transcript
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/24/remarks-president-economy-los-angeles-ca
Post Tim Horton’s, Obama looks like he’s thinking about (1) Canada as haven (2) the individual lives worldwide that the U.S. has willfully been driving into the desperations of financial ruin, severe psychic stress, marital breakup, contemplation of suicide — and skyrocketing rates of renunciation.
What really ticks Obama off is those big corporations. He talks about them just like they were individuals. Oopsie. Category mistake!
Obama thinks the money belongs to the government. They just decide how much to pay you of the money you earn. When you have the mindset the worst thing that can happen is people leave. Their earning then belong to another government.
You will regularly hear them talk about not being able to afford a tax cut. You will hear them talk about how taxing the rich won’t affect the economy so they should do it. I don’t think that if I steal the guy next doors car that it will really affect the local economy so that makes it OK.
You guys renouncing at the only hope we have to see many on the left understand that it not theirs.
Nice to see you inspired, usxcanada. I’ve missed your controversial cryptic writings.
Things must finally be getting interesting.
— Barack Obama (24 July 2014) White House Transcript
“Now, the problem is this loophole they’re using in our tax laws is actually legal. It’s so simple and so lucrative, one corporate attorney said it’s almost like “the Holy Grail” of tax avoidance schemes. My attitude is I don’t care if it’s legal — it’s wrong. (Applause.)”
But Mr. Obama, what of the times when extraterritorial tax avoidance is illegal, but it’s right?
We all need to think up ways to address the meme of renouncing citizenship to avoid taxes. And especially the backhanded ones which are buried in double memes such as Obama’s speech about corporate taxation and connecting it to individuals.
The administration and its party are like an abusive spouse, whose partner has left them alone with themself. They tell the world that their partner is unfaithful.
The administration claims that it has a right to tax people outside of its borders, for resident services which it doesn’t provide.
Obama said: “….My attitude is I don’t care if it’s legal — it’s wrong…”…
Exactly what we’ve been saying about US extraterritorial CBT imposed on individual real people living outside the US.
Yeah- somewhere somebody wrote as a commenter -“Like an abused wife who was beaten by her husband and the solution is to chain her to the gas pipe.”
But otherwise- concerning Burger King- the commenters are all saying “Boycott BK!” and “Tax evasion”!! it never occurs to them that businesses are leaving for a LEGITIMATE reason. It never occurs to them that tax reform should be the solution and not chains to a gas pipe.
I too think this meme has to be addressed. Their battle cry of “tax evasion” and “tax evaders” has to be addressed. How to change this for the masses? Because it seems to me they are in need of a scapegoat. They need somebody to let their aggressions out on ( and subdue their fears ) similarly to the jews in 1939. How can one change that? Is it even possible- to undo the need for a scapegoat? Because their battle cry of “tax evaders” masks the underlying problem.
Barack Obama does not have the mental capacity to distinguish between right and wrong.
GOING BANANAS:
Here is an interesting observation on inversions and bananas:
1. U.S. Chiquita wanted to invert by merging with Irish rival Fyffes:
http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2014/0729/633695-fyffes-egm-merger/
2. Chiquita was being sued for funding questionable activities in Columbia. This case was rejected by US courts on grounds of being extraterritorial: http://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201214898.pdf (page 4)
3. As soon as court case is rejected a counter-bid is made by a Brazilian group for Chiquita:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28798798 –> inversion maintained …. regardless of whether new HQs are in Ireland or Brasil
So some forms of extraterritoriality are frowned upon, others ignored….
RBT should apply for people and for corporations.
Tax should be paid where the money is earned without any smoke and mirrors.
It should not even matter where the corporate headquarters is located, the tax should be based on local earnings.
Microsoft should pay tax on its bonafide activities in Ireland.
Microsoft should not pay tax in Ireland for its activities in France, it should be paid in France.
John Smith resident in Ireland should pay tax on all his economic earnings in Ireland.
John Smith should not pay tax on his earnings in Ireland in the United States.
Personally, I object to Ford Motor, Starbucks and the plethora of USA companies conducting profitable business in the EU and paying tax on those earnings in the United States.
Sooooo if Levin et al are going to attack inversions then I say what is good for the goose is indeed good for the gander.
As an example, Boots a UK firm has been taken over by Walgreens a US firm and the headquarters will be in Chicago.
That is TAX THEFT from the people of the United Kingdom and should be stopped.
Let Walgreens merge with Boots but Boots should be required under UK law to file a UK tax return with no smoke and mirrors and pay UK tax on UK profits.
I wonder what Mr. Levin thinks about Walgreens sucking up Boots Plc?
Corporations are no different than individuals they vote with their feet. It’s my hope if BK and Hortons wed that it’s headquarters will be in Canada and pay taxes to the Canadian Treasury.
“We all need to think up ways to address the meme of renouncing citizenship to avoid taxes.”
Expats are renouncing citizenship in order to survive. Nobody can live a normal life with double taxation and without being able to plan for retirement.
Regarding this Obama speech, I just tried to leave a comment on the White House webpage : “required fields” have no place for non-US addresses. I had to use my last US address from 32 years ago. So much for this “U.S. Person” permanently living abroad to have a right to an opinion.
Hey, come on! If a corporation can be considered to have religious beliefs, then why shouldn’t they be treated as individuals for tax purposes? You can’t have it both ways, much as they’d like to try.
@George
Yesssss!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn- why can`t they see that.
Sometimes all it takes to go from fashion flop to fabulous trendsetter is TIME.
A lot of off-colour jokes could be made about Burger King, Tim Hortons, inversions and doughnut holes, but out of respect for a once hockey great, I won’t.
This could get very interesting. Will the homelander’s craving for justice overcome their craving for Whoppers, in a choice of boycot or burgers?
These politicians who disparage corporations, for running away from their draconian taxation, have not stopped to think this thing thru.
Corporations add all their costs in to the products before pricing them to the consumer. This ”add on” is ok as long as the product is sold here in the U.S. but when we try to sell products over seas, we run into two barriers. The first one is that taxes added in have to be recovered from foreigners who don’t want to pay and will go elswhere for product. The second problem is the citizenbased taxation which has driven most of our sales and service people home due to double taxation. Products are sold, not bought. You need ”boots on the ground”. Every remedy a politician thinks up just makes the problem worse.
If they’d just take care of the taxation problem, the other problems would disappear.
The FairTax is the tax answer, but politicins keep their finger on the scale against it because they want campaign money from those wanting tax favors, 8000 tax favors have been granted since 1986 when the ”Reagan tax reform” supposedly fixed the tax problem forever.
The D.C. Pukes are about to do the same thing over and in a few years a new generation of politicians, wanting money for politics, will do exactly what the current bunch has done.
You know the old saying–if you keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, you are probably crazy. If they don’t do the FairTax, that will be proof they are crazy. CRAZY BUNCH HUH?
Well, with a CDN corporate tax of 15% against a US35%, it just makes business sense to hightail it out of Dodge. Wish I had stocks in this merger but oops I’d wind up paying taxes to guess who? The writing is on the wall and it isn’t written in invisible ink but nobody seems to be awake at the wheel. Patriotism just doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s a global community. Stop FATCA and lower taxes and all will be well…simple as that!
Companies are isolating the US as a market financially. The US needs to change its tax system from its over reliance on direct taxation. The US needs to move to more indirect taxation and bring in a national VAT, trim the US corporate rate, eliminate special interests deductions, and reducing the borrowing requirement.
But those boneheads in DC would never agree to that.
This is ridiculous. Regardless of where Burger King’s headquarters are located, they still pay the US’ s 35% corporate tax rates (or whatever they pay since I think it’s variable) on all earnings in the US.. The only difference is the US charges the same tax on profits overseas that are then repatriated into the US. So instead of being taxed twice to bring their profits into their “home country”, they will only be taxed once. I don’t know if Obama and Harry Reid don’t understand this (I get the feeling they don’t understand a lot of very simple concepts) or they are willfully misleading people to gin up an emotional battle against these “evil” companies. But these companies will STILL PAY THEIR TAXES IN THE US AT THE SAME RATE! It’s NOT about tax avoidance on earnings, it’s simply about this absurd double taxation. Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to break free of that system?
If, as the US Supreme Court has ruled, “Corporations are people, too”, people should have the same rights as corporations. In that case a US person resident in Canada, especially one who has merged with a Canadian spouse 🙂 , has their “corporate headquarters” outside the U.S. It seems that under corporate tax law they should then owe no tax to the U.S. except on U.S.-sourced income. Isn’t that the way it works for corporations not resident in the U.S.?
I`d like to thank Warren Buffet in this case, for his obvious vote AGAINST the US form of corporate CBT. We MAY get some traction from this. For those of you that haven`t seen this part of the news, he`s anteing up $3Billion to back this transaction.
@Ben Sounds Willfull to me. It is not about understanding it is about what sounds good to other socialists.