Carly Fiorina complained about 35% US corporate tax rate - H-P paid 12% while

[banned from Kos]

she was CEO.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A43377-2004Apr1¬Found=true

By the end of its 2003 fiscal year, Hewlett-Packard Co. had "indefinitely" deferred taxation on $14.4 billion of foreign earnings, according to SEC filings, a move that helped lower its effective tax rate from the statutory corporate income tax rate of 35 percent to 12 percent.

Its not clear how long H-P paid 12% but its safe to say they never paid 35%. Their tax rate is public info.

Was anyone prepared to rebut her? No, of course not. And Krugman and Granholm are as good as it gets for Democrats on ABC.

[MADem]

1. Was that appearance her "VP Debate Try-Out?" If so, Biden will wipe the floor w/her. nt

[spanone]

2. republican lying is now accepted discourse for american television pundits.

[unblock]

3. the complaint is that the high us corporate tax rate "forces" them to keep profits overseas

they'd rather repatriate the profits, pay as little tax as possible, and put the money to us here in the u.s.

however, it's much more lucrative to engineer the profits to be made overseas, in low- or no-tax jurisdictions, and just invest the accumulated wealth there.

profits can be engineered to happen overseas by a number of methods. one of the most common is "transfer pricing": a foreign subsidiary sells a part or raw material to the american company. instead of paying a legitimate, market price for it, and realizing a huge profit on the final product assembled and sold in the u.s., they jack up the price of the raw material so that the profit happens overseas, and the american company makes low or no profit or even shows a loss.


the obvious solution to this nonsense is to simply tax all profits, regardless of where they happen. give a credit for taxes paid overseas, fine, but don't let the profits escape taxation entirely just because they didn't wire them money back to the u.s.

[dkf]

5. Then why won't they move the company to the lowest taxed country?

At least we get some taxes now. These are all international corporations, we may not be their biggest source of revenue when China and India and all the emerging countries come on line.

[unblock]

8. there are a number of reasons for them to stay officially here, most of them weakening over time.

first, the top executives want to live in the u.s.

second, many of these companies started in the u.s., and actually moving is a hassle and a non-trivial undertaking.

third, and most cynically, american corporations are on a much better legal footing to lobby the u.s. government to keep th laws here advantageous. as long as the u.s. consumer market remains the most lucrative in the world, this is a very profitable advantage for corporations.

[dkf]

11. Yes...as long as the US market remains the most lucrative.

Exactly.

[banned from Kos]

6. good points. They can also use those profits to expand where they are earned

I was in finance but I am not a tax specialist. I understand they get a full credit for, say Britain's 28% corporate taxes paid so the net would be 7%.

but you hit the nail when they set up a Euro office in Ireland to do those transfers and Ireland barely taxes them. Then they owe a load in taxes and the fun starts.

[dkf]

4. What's the difference between that and saying you pay a particular tax rate

That doesn't count the amount you deferred because you stuck it in your 401k?

Yeah it's deferred but if they bring it back they get taxed as normal no?

Unless they successfully lobby for the special rate for repatriation of course.

[unblock]

10. it's pretty much the same thing. both are tax shelters.

individual retirement plans have more social justification and support than overseas profit sheltering, but mathematically, yes, they're pretty much the same thing.

with the exception that retirement account money is deferred finitely -- eventually it WILL be taxed; whereas foreign profit sheltering may NEVER be taxed.

[IDemo]

7. I thought a house had fallen on her?

HP'ers were singing "Ding-dong, the witch is gone" the day her departure was announced.

[customerserviceguy]

9. Be glad they had her on there

Even GOP'ers despise her for running her companies into the ground. She's an idiot, and it was generous of George Steponallofus to put her in that chair rather than somebody who might be listened to.