Obama To Target Tax Havens In Budget

[babylonsister]

Sounds like a rich person's nightmare. I'm loving it!


Sam Stein
Obama To Target Tax Havens In Budget
February 24, 2009 04:27 PM


As part of the budget that he will introduce this Thursday, President Barack Obama will call for the closure of tax havens that allow companies to pay greatly reduced tax rates, an administration official tells the Huffington Post.

The inclusion of "funding for a robust portfolio of IRS international tax compliance initiatives" could help Congress make up an estimated $100 billion of revenue that is lost when companies set up what are often P.O. box addresses in locales like the Cayman Islands. Another Democratic official involved in the budget proceedings, however, cautioned that closing these loopholes could pose additional difficulties, specifically in determining which jurisdictions qualify as tax havens, and which companies qualify as domestic.

By calling for the elimination of tax havens in his budget, Obama is following through on a promise he made repeatedly throughout the campaign and one he has discussed as president.

"If you closed loopholes you could actually lower {other corporate tax} rates," he said at Monday's fiscal responsibility summit. "That's an area where there should be the potential for some bipartisan agreement."

The impetus to change this area of tax law has taken on increased significance in the weeks and months since the election. A GAO report from December revealed that 83 of the 100 largest publicly traded U.S. corporations had placed subsidiaries in tax haven jurisdictions to, ostensibly, pay less on their tax bills. This included a number of firms that had received billions of dollars in bailout funds from the federal government, such as Morgan Stanley (158 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands and recipient of $10 billion in TARP money), Citigroup (90 subsidiaries and $45 billion in TARP funds), and Bank of America (59 subsidiaries and $45 billion).

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/24/obama-to-target-tax-haven_n_169576.html

[Kdillard]

1. Some people aren't going to be very happy.

[babylonsister]

2. That's an understatement, and too damned bad. nt

[Kdillard]

4. It has just galled me all these rich people and businesses complaining about paying taxes

when we have so many loopholes they pay practically nothing. I am glad finally somebody is going to do something about it.

[WinkyDink]

5. The wealthy never really are, are they?

[FrenchieCat]

3. You mean, More Change?

Dayum! :wow:

[FightingIrish]

6. Another Ponzi scheme busted

There's a post on the Greatest Threads that shows how Reagan-Bush-Bush managed to get us into this mess.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5118865

It seems pretty clear to me that this was no accident. My kids and grandkids will be picking up the tab for the tax cheats that kept these criminals in power. I hope that we have a permanent end to government by greed and that these people realize the game is over. I feel like a Bernie Madoff client when I see how the wealth has flowed from hard working Americans to the elite few. I really like the new sheriff in town.

[4lbs]

7. Good. These are one of the main reasons why those Bush tax cuts to the wealthy don't work as well

as tax cuts for those making under $100K.

Rich(er) people just take the additional 4.5% annually and put them in tax havens and/or offshore accounts. They don't actually spend it in America and stimulate the economy.

People that get a 4% tax cut making, say, $40K or $60K, usually take that little bit extra and buy things with not. They don't sock it away in some shelter or offshore account where it doesn't help the American economy.

After all, when was the last time you saw a rich person in a supermarket saying "I'm sure glad Bush gave me back an extra 4.5% on my taxes! I'm now going to buy some extra groceries!"

[Barb in Atl]

8. Are you sure you want to recommend this?

You betcha! I have been adamant about getting corporations to pay their taxes since I had to pay my own. I hope people get behind this. Hopefully, the various fronts don't frighten people too much about it. The first defense will be that this will cause the loss of more jobs. Bull pie. This will make it so that the federal government has some money so we don't have to borrow EVERY dollar spent.

Thanks for more good news!

::edited for clarity::

[PA Democrat]

9. I've been trying for two years to finish reading "Perfectly Legal"

by David Cay Johnston, but I get physically ill after reading a dozen or so pages. The greed of some people who are already obscenely wealthy is sickening. When Republicans start moaning about taxes for the wealthiest in our country, I just start screaming at my TV because many of those folks are NOT paying their fair share of taxes, and the IRS typically doesn't even bother to go after them because they can afford to tie up IRS lawyers for years.