Corporate Taxes

There seems to be increasing distaste toward U.S. corporations keeping money overseas and therefore not paying taxes on it. Reporting seems to be particularly biased.

I recently read the page linked above and stumbled across some of the assertions.  Let’s do a quick review.

“Apple is by far the largest holder of offshore money not subject to U.S. taxes, with $181.1 billion. If those profits were taxed at U.S. rates, the company would pay $59.2 billion.”

Well, actually, I bet if those profits were taxed at U.S. rates, the company would avoid the U.S. in even more aggressive ways.  The point is, like other government actions, tax subjects are not static.  If you change the law, then people change to accommodate.  Now, if your point is that shouldn’t happen either, then you might as well drop the targeted analysis and just say, “Let’s have higher taxes all around.”

“Congress has created loopholes in our tax code that allow offshore tax avoidance, which forces ordinary Americans to make up the difference.”

So, if corporations were taxed higher, my taxes would be lower?  That’s a pretty speculative assumption.  Corporations are net-zero entities.  Take more money from them and they take more from customers.  Why is this so difficult to see for some people?

What’s not reported is that corporations are keeping money overseas to be taxed at foreign rates because the American corporate tax rate is so obscenely high–more than 3x what God himself asked from the Old Testament Israelites.

Plot a graph of how much money is kept in a country versus that country’s corporate tax rate?  I bet companies, like people, keep their money where it’s taken the least.  What is the big surprise and why is this gaining overtones of immorality?