Untaxed U.S. corporate profits held overseas top $2.1 trillion: study

[initforme]

Why don't they surrender their American citizenship then? Fine, move overseas but cut all ties to American then.

 

[Erand7899]

Why is there an assumption that all profits made by US companies should be filtered thru the coffers of the federal gov't?

Yes, those companies made money. So? Why do some people assume it is either paid to Uncle Sam or they are doing something wrong?

It's government that allows business to flourish.

No government? No capitalism.

Government provides a vast array of services, infrastructure and resources that are mainly funded by the people WORKING for these private corporations.

They get money coming and going.

A little parity is not much to ask.

And it's part of the United States Constitution.

I hate to break this to you, but we have 51 major governments, and thousands of minor ones. Most of the infrastructure and services are provided by the states, and not the federal government. Except for foreign policy and national defense, we can survive without the federal government.

The people working for private corporations are paid for the services they provide, and that is what they are entitled to. Unless you are a shareholder, an employee, or contractor to one or more of these corporations, they owe you nothing.

 

[Erand7899]

"No government, no capitalism"
Wow, what a crock of shit.
PEOPLE made this a capitalist society, NOT government.
The Founders feared the power of government.

Capitalism would not exist without a government to protect their interests

Nonsense! Capitalism exists even where there is no government. However, it exists under the risk that a bigger, meaner entity will take the profits or the business. Capitalism even existed in the Soviet Union. It was called the black market, and government was doing everything in its power to take it down.

Capitalism operated in the wild west, in the gold fields of Colorado, California, Alaska, and Canada, long before they had a government beyond a local marshall or a miner's committee. Capitalism existed on the great plains, where trading posts and general stores often stood alone and provided their own protection.

 

[francoHFW]

Read "the Good Old Days- They were Terrible!", dingbat.

 

[Erand7899]

Read "the Good Old Days- They were Terrible!", dingbat.

Terrible for whom, dingbat? I grew up in the Forties and Fifties, and I had a pretty damn good life. Things didn't start going off the rails until the federal government decided to get involved in everyone's life in the Seventies. Thats when the illegitimate offspring of the Communists began to rise in political power. They have pretty well killed the good ole days.

 

[initforme]

I grew up in the 40s and 50s...they surely were nothing close to the good ole days. Middle classes worked for peanuts and were told that was the American dream. Hilarious.

 

[francoHFW]

I think the fifties and sixties WERE the good old days...the GI bill, the greatest generation strong unions, and little int'l competition...No, I was referring to the Gilded Age and before. Horrible working and living conditions for most, lawlessness, early death. Read the book, or just google it. Reagan was demented in believing in those good old days...

 

[francoHFW]

NOW will be the good old days once we get rid of RW idiot pander to the rich tax rates and unwillingness to invest in our people and infrastructure.....not to mention the idiotic wars and corrupt bubbles and meltdowns...

 

[francoHFW]

Including the OP profits that Pubs protect...

 

[Sallow]

Why is there an assumption that all profits made by US companies should be filtered thru the coffers of the federal gov't?

Yes, those companies made money. So? Why do some people assume it is either paid to Uncle Sam or they are doing something wrong?

It's government that allows business to flourish.

No government? No capitalism.

Government provides a vast array of services, infrastructure and resources that are mainly funded by the people WORKING for these private corporations.

They get money coming and going.

A little parity is not much to ask.

And it's part of the United States Constitution.

I hate to break this to you, but we have 51 major governments, and thousands of minor ones. Most of the infrastructure and services are provided by the states, and not the federal government. Except for foreign policy and national defense, we can survive without the federal government.

The people working for private corporations are paid for the services they provide, and that is what they are entitled to. Unless you are a shareholder, an employee, or contractor to one or more of these corporations, they owe you nothing.

I hate to break this to you, but all the 51 "major" governments are possible because of the umbrella of the really "major" government, the Federal one. And most of those 51 "major" government receive block grants and other subsidies from the really major one to support the infrastructure they build. And without the Federal government many of those states would wither on the vine. No seriously..they would. Additionally, I don't see many of you "two - fisted, I don't need government types striking off into the woods" and going it alone. Part of the reason this nation is such a success is because they decided early on that a "Confederation" of states, or what you just described, wasn't the way to go.

I have posted multiple times over and over in this very thread that if you folks really want to decouple government from corporations? Hey..let's do it. It's a two way street.

So far? You folks are on the company line.

You just want the regulations and taxes cut.

And you still want government to be the biggest client of American big business.

 

[Sallow]

Read "the Good Old Days- They were Terrible!", dingbat.

Terrible for whom, dingbat? I grew up in the Forties and Fifties, and I had a pretty damn good life. Things didn't start going off the rails until the federal government decided to get involved in everyone's life in the Seventies. Thats when the illegitimate offspring of the Communists began to rise in political power. They have pretty well killed the good ole days.

Sure you did.

They were the direct result of FDR's new deal.

That was the time we had an actual middle class rise in this country. And the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT had gotten involved.

 

[Sallow]

Just unreal..

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Foreign profits held overseas by U.S. corporations to avoid taxes at home nearly doubled from 2008 to 2013 to top $2.1 trillion, said a private research firm's report, prompting a call for reform by the Senate's top tax law writer.

"The new numbers ... certainly highlight what is one of the key challenges for tax reform. I do think there need to be some reforms in this area," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden told reporters on Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Under U.S. law, corporations do not have to pay income tax on most of their overseas profits until they are brought into the United States. These earnings can be held offshore for years if they are classified as indefinitely invested abroad.

Research firm Audit Analytics said in a report issued last week that the total of such earnings was up 93 percent from 2008 to 2013, citing federal financial filings for companies listed in the Russell 1000 index of U.S. corporations.

Conglomerate General Electric Co had the biggest pile of earnings stored abroad, at $110 billion, the firm said.

Next were software maker Microsoft Corp, with $76.4 billion; drugmakers Pfizer Inc, with $69 billion, and Merck & Co Inc, with $57.1 billion; and high-tech group Apple Inc, with $54.4 billion, it said.

In response, GE said in a statement: "GE operates in more than 170 countries, and most of these overseas earnings have been reinvested in active business operations like manufacturing facilities and loans to non-U.S. customers."

Microsoft, Merck and Pfizer were not immediately available for comment. Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

BAUCUS AND WYDEN

Congress has quarreled for years over the law that lets multinationals stash profits abroad tax-free. Some favor killing the law - known as offshore corporate income tax deferral - and some back a one-time tax holiday that would let companies bring foreign profits home, or "repatriate" them, at a low tax rate.

Debate over offshore deferral flared again in November when Wyden's predecessor as finance committee chairman, former Democratic Senator Max Baucus, proposed doing both. Baucus resigned weeks later to become U.S. ambassador to China.

Wyden in the past has called for repeal of offshore deferral, along with a repatriation holiday, among other changes to the tax code, which he last month called "a rotten carcass that the special interests feast on."Untaxed U.S. corporate profits held overseas top $2.1 trillion: study

Time to get rid of both.

What a rotten shame. All that money and the politicians cannot get their grubby little hands on any of it. That is more than enough to make a left winger cry in anguish.

BTW, none of those corporations need the United States for anything more than a market. Be very, very, careful that you do not run off the golden geese.

Actually it's right winger that whine like stuck pigs when the government spigot is cut off.

Of course they love it when poor folks are suffering..like they did during the sequester.

But turn off the massive amounts of cash going for military contracts and farm subsidies? They go back to the trough.