CW Editor's blog

How about a holiday from corporate extortion?

 

Fortune features a Feb. 16 article by Tory Newmyer about how large multi-national tech, pharmaceutical, and energy corporations such as Oracle, Cisco, Apple, Duke Energy, and Pfizer are lobbying vociferously for a one-year so-called "tax holiday" that would allow them to bring roughly $1 trillion in profits from their overseas operations back to the United States at a 5 percent tax rate instead of the "official" rate of 35 percent.

 

There are so many things wrong with this proposal — and the underlying issues — that it's hard to decide where to begin. But let's start by considering the mafia-like extortion by which these corporations are refusing to bring money back to the U.S., unless they pay only a token amount of tax on it (i.e., "Do what we say or you'll never see your money again"). Or the fact that President Obama's proposed budget contains a structural deficit estimated at roughly $1.5 trillion, and taxing that overseas corporate stash at 35 percent would instantly cut that deficit by $350 billion.

 

Pages