Free Republic

Back in September 2008, during a presidential debate, Republican candidate John McCain declared: "American business pays the second-highest business taxes in the world, [at] 35%." Democrat Barack Obama, countered that, while on paper corporate taxes look high, "there are so many loopholes that have been written into the tax code that…we actually see our businesses pay effectively one of the lowest rates in the world." Both were right—and wrong. Obama was right that loopholes make the effective tax rate paid by U.S. corporations much lower than the top statutory rate of 35%. But far from paying one of the lowest...

High corporate income taxes are often justified by the rhetoric that businesses—and their high-income investors—should "pay their fair share." In Tax Foundation Special Report No. 169, "The Corporate Income Tax and Workers' Wages: New Evidence from the 50 States," Senior Fellow Robert Carroll, Ph.D., finds that states with high corporate income taxes have likely depressed their workers' wages over the long term, while states with low corporate taxes have boosted worker productivity and real wages. "These findings are not only consistent with a growing body of research on international corporate income taxes and wages, but they get to the heart...

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday criticized U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to raise taxes on U.S. companies' foreign operations, saying it would amount to double taxation that will hurt the global economy. "This is a serious decision for the world economy," Putin said at a meeting of the Presidium, the government said on its web site. "If taxes are imposed on all companies working abroad, then it will mean the total destruction of the system for avoiding double taxation." Putin instructed Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to hold discussions on the plan with Obama's administration. Kudrin met with finance ministers...

Listen to President Obama, and the status quo seems a cesspool. Pervasive "loopholes" engineered by "well-connected lobbyists" allow U.S. multinationals to skirt American taxes and outsource jobs to low-tax countries. Myth: Aided by those overpaid lobbyists, American multinationals are taxed lightly -- less so than their foreign counterparts. Reality: Just the opposite. Most countries don't tax the foreign profits of their multinational firms at all. Myth: When U.S. multinationals invest abroad, they destroy American jobs. Reality: Not so. Myth: Plugging overseas corporate tax loopholes will dramatically improve the budget outlook as multinationals pay their "fair" share. Reality: Dream on.

President Obama revealed Monday that he's half a supply-sider. If only someone could explain to him the other half. We have a tax code, the President said, "that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York." That sounds like a great argument for lowering taxes on the guy creating jobs in Buffalo. Alas, that's not what he has in mind.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday will propose changing provisions in the tax code that he says encourage U.S. companies to move jobs overseas, as part of a broader package aimed at saving $210 billion over 10 years. Obama will seek to follow through on a campaign promise to change the tax treatment of American firms with overseas operations. That portion of his plan -- opposed by such firms as Pfizer Inc and Oracle Corp -- would raise more than $100 billion in revenue over the next decade. Obama vowed in a February address to the U.S. Congress...

The Obama administration will roll out details Monday of what aides are calling a far-reaching crackdown on offshore tax avoidance, targeting many U.S.-based multinational corporations and wealthy individuals. President Barack Obama will flesh out a proposal included in his February budget blueprint seeking to curb the practice of parking foreign earnings in offshore tax havens indefinitely. By some estimates, $700 billion or more in U.S. corporate earnings have accumulated in overseas accounts in recent years. The plan to be announced Monday will go further. It aims to change the legal treatment of offshore subsidiaries and structures that companies have used...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama has proposed a dramatic tax increase on the foreign profits of U.S. multinationals, in a 10-year budget blueprint released Thursday. The tax increase on foreign income, taken together with proposals to crack down on offshore tax cheating, would swell federal coffers by an extra $25 billion a year in revenue by 2014, according to projections by White House budget officials. The budget plan would also impose a $31.5 billion tax increase, over a 10-year period, on oil companies, by repealing various tax breaks now enjoyed by the sector. In addition to that, Mr. Obama would...

Phasing out the corporate income tax would keep Arizona at the head of the pack At 6.97 percent, Arizona has one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the West. Despite this fact Arizona's economy keeps motoring along. Unemployment remains low and average earnings continue to rise, now just over $40,000. But like any NASCAR champion will tell you, if you want to stay ahead of the pack, you have to improve every year. Hard working entrepreneurs are responsible for the state's growing prosperity. The best thing Arizona policymakers can to do to help them keep on keeping on...