Listen people. The problem is not corporations leaving the country to avoid paying “their fair share”. The problem is the damn tax code. Corporations DO NOT PAY TAXES period!!!. PEOPLE pay taxes. Now pay attention as I lay it out for you.If you increase a corporation’s tax bill by say $100K; where is the corporation going to get that money? The first place to look is at reducing overhead. That is not likely to get the job done because most corporations (those that are run by business people who know what they are doing) have already cut back on things like utility bills etc. as much as possible. This leaves the “profit” that the corporation made as the pool needed to pay the $100K increased tax burden. If the corporation pays that $100K, then it has $100K less to pay the CEO; the Board of Directors; the shareholders and the employees. If you were the CEO, would you want that $100K to come out of your pocket?If you were a memeber of the BoD, would you want that $100K to come out of your pocket?If you were a shareholder, would you want that $100K to come out of your pocket in the form of lower dividends?If you were an employee, would you want that $100K to come out of your pocket in the form of no year end bonus, smaller raises, higher work load because no new employees are hired or perhaps some of your co-workers got laid off?The only other source of money to pay the increased tax burden would be from a higher profit margin. Decreasing expenses has been touched on above and holds little promise to raise the needed money. This leaves increasing the cost of goods sold/services provided which means that the consumer (that’s us) pays more for the widget being sold.The corporation pays no taxes. The tax burden (big or small) on a corporation (big or small) is paid by people (the CEO, the BoD, the shareholders, the employees and/or the consumer). To solve a problem you must identify the problem. The problem is the tax code itself. With 1000s and 1000s of pages and legalese that is incomprehensible to the average person and even more “regulations” set forth buy the IRS, the current tax code is a monster that is destroying our country. It is easy to vilify Corporations and make them the bad guys. But that doesn’t solve the problem. We have no leadership in the White House nor Congress. Both the Republicans and the Democrats would rather find a fall guy (like big, bad corporations that are relocating overseas for tax reasons) than solve the problem.
Just a word on the “no leadership” comments; it may seem mere semantics but it has to do with how one thinks. Disabuse yourselves of the the idea that there is no leadership in D.C. There IS leadership. All those Congressional desks are full; the Oval Office and all the other west wing offices are full. The problem you’re complaining about is that THIS…THIS is what that leadership is doing. Over and over and over and over and… Just because they obviously are there to tend to their own various and sundry agenda does not mean that they are not your leaders. Sorry.
@Herdleader1953Nag, nag, nag. The IRS can still get them for out of country accounts. Besides the article I read stated that only Tim Horton was staying in Canada; Burger King will still be headquartered in Florida.
They left off that herd ahead of the king, and yes Berkshire Hathaway IS a corporation. At least Buffet, and even Gates, are doing some good with their PERSONAL wealth.
PepeLePew2010 over 9 years ago
God bless CaptilaLism
sw10mm over 9 years ago
One company of 25 since little o took office and we’re just now getting upset?
herdleader53 over 9 years ago
Listen people. The problem is not corporations leaving the country to avoid paying “their fair share”. The problem is the damn tax code. Corporations DO NOT PAY TAXES period!!!. PEOPLE pay taxes. Now pay attention as I lay it out for you.If you increase a corporation’s tax bill by say $100K; where is the corporation going to get that money? The first place to look is at reducing overhead. That is not likely to get the job done because most corporations (those that are run by business people who know what they are doing) have already cut back on things like utility bills etc. as much as possible. This leaves the “profit” that the corporation made as the pool needed to pay the $100K increased tax burden. If the corporation pays that $100K, then it has $100K less to pay the CEO; the Board of Directors; the shareholders and the employees. If you were the CEO, would you want that $100K to come out of your pocket?If you were a memeber of the BoD, would you want that $100K to come out of your pocket?If you were a shareholder, would you want that $100K to come out of your pocket in the form of lower dividends?If you were an employee, would you want that $100K to come out of your pocket in the form of no year end bonus, smaller raises, higher work load because no new employees are hired or perhaps some of your co-workers got laid off?The only other source of money to pay the increased tax burden would be from a higher profit margin. Decreasing expenses has been touched on above and holds little promise to raise the needed money. This leaves increasing the cost of goods sold/services provided which means that the consumer (that’s us) pays more for the widget being sold.The corporation pays no taxes. The tax burden (big or small) on a corporation (big or small) is paid by people (the CEO, the BoD, the shareholders, the employees and/or the consumer). To solve a problem you must identify the problem. The problem is the tax code itself. With 1000s and 1000s of pages and legalese that is incomprehensible to the average person and even more “regulations” set forth buy the IRS, the current tax code is a monster that is destroying our country. It is easy to vilify Corporations and make them the bad guys. But that doesn’t solve the problem. We have no leadership in the White House nor Congress. Both the Republicans and the Democrats would rather find a fall guy (like big, bad corporations that are relocating overseas for tax reasons) than solve the problem.
avarner over 9 years ago
The reason this is getting so much ink is Buffett’s involvement.
You know: The president’s pal that tells us all what the right thing to do is….
Remember, he said his secretary paid a higher tax rate than he did? So we needed higher taxes on the rich. You can’t make it up….
dogday Premium Member over 9 years ago
Just a word on the “no leadership” comments; it may seem mere semantics but it has to do with how one thinks. Disabuse yourselves of the the idea that there is no leadership in D.C. There IS leadership. All those Congressional desks are full; the Oval Office and all the other west wing offices are full. The problem you’re complaining about is that THIS…THIS is what that leadership is doing. Over and over and over and over and… Just because they obviously are there to tend to their own various and sundry agenda does not mean that they are not your leaders. Sorry.
Observer fo Irony over 9 years ago
@Herdleader1953Nag, nag, nag. The IRS can still get them for out of country accounts. Besides the article I read stated that only Tim Horton was staying in Canada; Burger King will still be headquartered in Florida.
Dtroutma over 9 years ago
They left off that herd ahead of the king, and yes Berkshire Hathaway IS a corporation. At least Buffet, and even Gates, are doing some good with their PERSONAL wealth.