Global Tax Rate

[TC Talks]

Here's a brilliant idea, those countries that don't sign on get frozen out. It would be hard for industrialized nations not to ignore a minimum tax rate for corporations.

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen made the case on Monday for a global minimum tax, kicking off the Biden administration’s effort to help raise revenue in the United States and prevent companies from shifting profits overseas to evade taxes.

Ms. Yellen, in a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, called for global coordination on an international tax rate that would apply to multinational corporations regardless of where they locate their headquarters. Such a global tax could help prevent the type of “race to the bottom” that has been underway, Ms. Yellen said, referring to countries trying to outdo one another by lowering tax rates in order to attract business.

Her remarks came as the White House and Democrats in Congress begin looking for ways to pay for President Biden’s sweeping infrastructure plan to rebuild America's roads, bridges, water systems and electric grid.

“Competitiveness is about more than how U.S.-headquartered companies fare against other companies in global merger and acquisition bids,” Ms. Yellen said. “It is about making sure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods and respond to crises, and that all citizens fairly share the burden of financing government.”

The speech represented Ms. Yellen's most extensive comments since taking over as Treasury secretary, and she underscored the scope of the challenge ahead.

“Over the last four years, we have seen firsthand what happens when America steps back from the global stage,” Ms. Yellen said. “America first must never mean America alone.”

[Matt]

No source, again.

This is a terrible idea, nothing more than big government spending protectionism.

[Big Al]

No source, again.

This is a terrible idea, nothing more than big government spending protectionism.

I think he neglects to post a source specifically to encourage you to whine.

[jadednihilist]

No source, again.

This is a terrible idea, nothing more than big government spending protectionism.

I think he neglects to post a source specifically to encourage you to whine.

Here is a source: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/5464 ... s-treasury

Not only is a lack of source attribution unprofessional, unethical, and stifles productive conversation, it also opens the board up to civil legal action at the will of the owners of the original content.

I also tend to agree that this policy initiative sounds like a non-starter. There has to be some sort incentive for other countries to buy-in to this policy and I think that's pretty unlikely at this point.

[km1125]

You could say the same about state-vs-state tax rates. Didn't Granholm try to make that argument?

What if they do implement a "global tax rate"? Does each county retain all the proceeds, or are those proceeds pooled and then divvied up by some international agreement?

[TC Talks]

My source will always be credible and easily searchable. Are you suggesting that Yellen never made this proposal? Or are you suggesting that Google is too hard a concept.

And this case it was the New York Times, and not The Hill.

As for the merits of the idea we will have to see how the rest of the industrialized world chooses to respond. We are all susceptible to corporations trying to move money around and cheat countries out of the funds necessary to run a world-class Nation.

No source, again.

This is a terrible idea, nothing more than big government spending protectionism.

I think he neglects to post a source specifically to encourage you to whine.

Here is a source: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/5464 ... s-treasury

Not only is a lack of source attribution unprofessional, unethical, and stifles productive conversation, it also opens the board up to civil legal action at the will of the owners of the original content.

I also tend to agree that this policy initiative sounds like a non-starter. There has to be some sort incentive for other countries to buy-in to this policy and I think that's pretty unlikely at this point.

[Matt]

My source will always be credible and easily searchable. Are you suggesting that Yellen never made this proposal? Or are you suggesting that Google is too hard a concept.

And this case it was the New York Times, and not The Hill.

As for the merits of the idea we will have to see how the rest of the industrialized world chooses to respond. We are all susceptible to corporations trying to move money around and cheat countries out of the funds necessary to run a world-class Nation.

No source, again.

This is a terrible idea, nothing more than big government spending protectionism.

I think he neglects to post a source specifically to encourage you to whine.

Here is a source: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/5464 ... s-treasury

Not only is a lack of source attribution unprofessional, unethical, and stifles productive conversation, it also opens the board up to civil legal action at the will of the owners of the original content.

I also tend to agree that this policy initiative sounds like a non-starter. There has to be some sort incentive for other countries to buy-in to this policy and I think that's pretty unlikely at this point.

I saw the story earlier and was going to post that it is a complete non-starter and a waste if time. Jadednihilist said the link that he or she posted was A source, not THE source. Posting content and not clearly linking or identifying is a form of plagiarism.

[TC Talks]

Since you enjoy government oversight so much, call the police and let them know that a New York Times subscriber copied a few paragraphs of one of their stories. I'll wait for the warrant to be issued for my arrest.

Maybe it's time to take a breath and maybe a walk

[jadednihilist]

Dramatic much? It's okay to be wrong about something without doubling down when called out. We'll be flirting with 80 degrees over the next couple of days, so a walk sounds quite fantastic. Then perhaps we could look forward to reasonable debates instead of this foolish sideshow.

BTW, thanks for the reply, Matt! If I could give a thumbs up on the post I would. Also, I should disclose that I am a he.

[TC Talks]

With bills being introduced in the House and Senate shortly, I wouldn't call this a dead issue. And I doubt anybody on this forum will be impacted one bit.

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, released a new tax plan on Monday.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration and top Democrats in Congress began detailing plans for significant changes to how the United States and other countries tax multinational corporations as they look for ways to raise revenues and finance President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal.

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen threw her support behind an international effort to create a global minimum tax that would apply to multinational corporations, regardless of where they locate their headquarters. Such a global tax, she said, could help prevent a “race to the bottom” in which countries cut their tax rates in order to entice companies to move headquarters and profits across borders.

“Together, we can use a global minimum tax to make sure the global economy thrives based on a more level playing field in the taxation of multinational corporations,” she said. The effort is aimed at “making sure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods and respond to crises, and that all citizens fairly share the burden of financing government.”

At the same time, Democrats in Congress released their own proposal to add teeth to the de facto minimum tax that the United States already imposes on income earned abroad — one that would apply to American multinational companies regardless of what the rest of the world does. The proposal could raise as much as $1 trillion over the next 15 years from large companies by requiring that they pay higher taxes on profits they earn overseas, according to analyses of similar plans.

Ms. Yellen’s support for a global minimum tax could help catalyze an agreement being worked out through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which seeks to reduce companies’ practice of booking profits in low-tax “haven” countries to avoid higher tax bills elsewhere. Negotiators are discussing a range of possibilities for such a plan, but they have not settled on several crucial details, including the rate of the minimum tax.

The focus on raising taxes for large companies comes as the Biden administration begins its push to sell a $2 trillion infrastructure plan and finance it with higher taxes. Mr. Biden’s proposal includes raising the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent and a variety of changes to international tax law, all meant to force companies to pay more to the Treasury after a plunge in corporate tax revenues spurred by President Donald J. Trump’s signature 2017 tax cuts.

Democrats and White House officials say that their goal is to ensure companies pay their fair share and that they do not move jobs and profits abroad to avoid paying taxes in the United States.

But some tax experts, along with large business lobbying groups, say the proposals could hobble American corporations on the global stage by forcing them to pay significantly higher tax rates than their competitors pay. That could be true even if global negotiators eventually agree to a worldwide minimum tax — because that tax rate could still be lower than what companies pay in the United States.

If the Democratic plans succeed and Ms. Yellen and her global counterparts reach agreement, “there could be a cogent international tax system” with some effective incentives for investments in the United States, said Danielle Rolfes, a former international tax counsel for the Treasury Department in the Obama administration who is now a leader of KPMG’s international tax practice in Washington.

But, she said, “I would be concerned, if the rates get too high, that the U.S. might have competitiveness issues.”

Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, said Ms. Yellen’s call for a global minimum tax was an admission that Mr. Biden’s plan to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent would make American companies less competitive.

“This is why Secretary Yellen is imploring other developed countries to punish their workers and businesses with their own tax increases,” Mr. Toomey said in a statement. “‘Race to the bottom’ is the way the Biden administration describes competition among developed countries to get to a tax code that attracts investment and maximizes growth.”

Mr. Biden dismissed that view on Monday, saying American companies could afford to pay a higher tax rate given many paid no taxes over the past several years.

“You have 51 or 52 corporations of the Fortune 500 that haven’t paid a single penny in taxes for three years,” he said. “Come on, man. Let’s get real.”


And Ms. Yellen, in remarks before the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, noted that many developing and middle-income countries were struggling financially, in part because of insufficient tax revenue. That has made it harder for them to invest in robust rollouts of coronavirus vaccines, which she warned could hurt the global economy as the pandemic continues.

At issue is how governments should tax income that multinational companies earn across borders. Large firms increasingly operate in multiple nations: Amazon sells to shoppers in Europe, for example, and Morgan Stanley offers financial services in China.

With operations spread across multiple countries, many companies seek to reduce their tax bills by locating operations — or simply booking profits — in low-tax jurisdictions like Bermuda or Ireland. When Republicans passed their sweeping tax law in 2017, supporters said it would help to curb that practice and encourage domestic investment, both by reducing the corporate tax rate in the United States and by setting up a new system for taxing income earned abroad, including a measure that was meant to be like a minimum tax for all global income.

But Democrats say the law and the administration’s use of the tax did the opposite, giving companies new incentives to locate factories and profits abroad. Both the plan Mr. Biden sketched out last week and a new proposal released by three Democratic senators on Monday would seek to reverse those incentives, taxing offshore income more aggressively and offering new targeted benefits for companies that invest in research and production at home.

The proposal would increase the rate of the 2017 minimum tax and change how it is applied to income that corporations earn in various countries overseas, effectively forcing many companies to pay the tax on more of their income, while offering new targeted tax relief linked to domestic investments.

The Senate plan comes from Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who is in charge of writing tax legislation as chairman of the Finance Committee, and two Democratic colleagues: Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia.

The presence of Mr. Brown, one of the most progressive Democrats on tax issues in the Senate, and the more centrist Mr. Warner as authors suggests the Wyden plan could attract widespread support in a Democratic caucus that most likely cannot afford to lose a single vote for Mr. Biden’s infrastructure plan.

Adam Looney, a former Treasury Department tax official in the Obama administration who is now the executive director of the Marriner S. Eccles Institute for Economics and Quantitative Analysis at the University of Utah, praised the senators’ proposal. “The plan retains the now-familiar international tax regime,” he said, “but proposes to reform several lopsided tax breaks that provide rich benefits for international corporations without much in the way of investment or jobs in the U.S.” NY Times

[zzand]

Seems o me what we, the US, is asking is for the rest of the world to raises taxes so when we do companies don't run to countries where the tax rate is better. If I was the rest of the world I would fart in the general direction of that idea. If you chase them away, we will be happy to welcome them.

[Rate This]

Seems o me what we, the US, is asking is for the rest of the world to raises taxes so when we do companies don't run to countries where the tax rate is better. If I was the rest of the world I would fart in the general direction of that idea. If you chase them away, we will be happy to welcome them.

The rest of the world isn’t nearly as conservative as we are nor do most of them bend over backwards for business before the citizens of the country. Switzerland and the Bahamas are exceptions I suppose and there must be a few others. How about Pakistan? I hear it’s very hospitable to western companies building office parks to house their headquarters. Maybe they’ll start building plants in a Caribbean country... At least you wouldn’t have to go on a cruise.

I know! The Cayman Islands! There’s lots and lots of room there.

[zzand]

I do believe in the Cayman's, a P.O. Box is all that is needed...

[Bryce]

I would fart in the general direction of that idea.

Would you start speaking in an outrageous accent and taunt them second time too?

[zzand]

Yes! lol