CEOs say they would give up tax breaks

Source: MSNBC/Reuters

WASHINGTON — The CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other major U.S. employers told Congress Wednesday they would be willing to give up tax breaks that benefit their companies in return for a steep drop in the country's 35 percent corporate tax rate.

Companies, including big companies, pay a much lower overall effective rate by exploiting tax breaks, usually in perfectly legal ways, that in 2011 are costing the government about $102 billion in lost revenue.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43915204/ns/business-us_business/

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This is a dumb article. They know if the tax rate is lowered that will show a % of profit as increased. Then their bonuses increase. How dumb do they think the American public really is?

they are willing to give up their tax breaks, only if they get more tax breaks? WTF!

Assuming they are being honest (ya a big maybe there but lets consider it for now) then this might be good thing, take GE for example, they paid zero taxes because of the breaks and loopholes, if the tax was lowered to 25% and the breaks and loopholes were removed then that is a good thing imo because the government would be collecting the 25% rather than the 0% now.

they recognized current problems and indicated interest in rationalizing tax code.

They have people to work out the numbers. They know this would be to their advantage.

Beware CEOs bearing gifts.

but it could also be self interest on their parts because if the loopholes and tax breaks are removed totally without lowering the % taxed then it would end up costing them even more money.

And please don't say a word about job creation. I don't want to spew at this hour.

that companies like GE and Walmart would use their clout at the very least probably be able to delay (if not outright kill) the closing of the loopholes if they arent given an incentive not to so imo giving them a cut to 25% - 28% (example only btw) isnt a bad thing if it means they support it so we can go from collecting 0% in taxes as in the case of GE to collecting say that 25% - 28% example I mentioned above.

Why should they?

as you can contact your local Representative to Congress and your Senator just like every other citizen to complain and request they look into lowering it.
As for this, the way I look at it is that going to something like 25% or even 28% would be better than the zero % that the governments getting now, sure getting a higher % would be great to but its unlikely to happen while corporations have as much power to influence our elected officials as they do currently.

I own a small business. We have to compete against companies that effectively have a lower tax rate, because they get breaks we don't. I would love it if the largest corporations lose their advantage, but I don't see it ever happening.

Edited spelling

We need to oppose any and every effort to lower their tax rates.

They are real people with similar concerns to those we have, and they recognize their responsibilities.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1587460

:pals:

60% into 65%.

we all guard our self-interest as best we can; not all of us have the power that wealth & power gives to pay off the guards.

iow, saying "we all recognize our self-interest" (implying that the ptb are no different from you & i) is ridiculous. there's no equivalence.

Who cares what it is?


How about a mandatory minimum tax! Huh? Huh?

How much and how much of what?

I work in a Corporate tax department of a Fortune 500 company and we pay close to the statutory rate (i.e. our permanent deductions are nothing like GE's).

If these CEOs are calling for this, it's obvious they're expecting me to grab my ankles.

By any other name would smell as sweet....Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

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Rolling Stone Magazine

Matt Taibbi

Taibbiblog

"Evil Corporate Tax Holiday Gains

The madness that is the proposed tax repatriation holiday is continuing and gathering steam. More and more members of congress are coming out of the woodwork, scratching their chins in contemplative consideration as it were, pretending that they’ve just realized what a great day a corporate tax holiday would be – not that they’ve taken gazillions of dollars from the firms lobbying for it or anything.

<snip>


Again, if they pass this thing one more time, the fiction of the "one-time holiday" disappears forever, and the next decade will see an explosion of exported profits, “transfer pricing,” and cunning use of correspondent banks to stealth-repatriate offshored funds. Everyone will know that the effective corporate tax rate has been dropped from 35 percent to 5 percent – all companies need to do is hide profits overseas and bring them back about once every presidential term or two.

This has the doubly negative effect of lowering revenue during the holiday years and reducing job investment in the intervening years, as private business revenue is kept outside the borders of the U.S. instead of staying here and dumped into the economy. Naturally, since this is the exactly stupidest thing federal lawmakers could consider doing, they are doing it."


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/evil-corporate-tax-holiday-gains-bipartisan-support-20110726