Posted on 02/18/2014 6:50:10 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Have you ever been caught in the rain on a day the forecast said was supposed to be sunny and wondered, did the weatherman even look outside before issuing his forecast? Is his weather model really that bad?
So it is with the government economists who continue to issue sunny reports about the burden of U.S. corporate taxes in the face of glaring evidence to the contrary.
The latest of these sunny forecasts comes from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which reports that the "average corporate tax rate" was 16 percent last year, up from 13 percent in 2011 and 15 percent in 2012. About the same time, however, Bloomberg reported that since 2012, at least 13 companies have engaged in a form of self-help tax reform by re-incorporating in low-tax countries like Ireland.
So what's reality here? Why would companies such as chipmaker Applied Materials move their headquarters to another country if the corporate tax burden is that low? After all, compared to the 35 percent statutory federal corporate tax rate-the highest in the developed world-paying a 16 percent effective rate after deductions sounds like a pretty good deal.
It turns out that the economists at CBO and a number of government agencies-such as the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Congressional Research Service, and the White House-are all vastly understating the actual burden of corporate taxes in the U.S. And they are doing so either because of faulty methodology, bad models, bias, or simply because they have not looked out the window at what is really going on outside.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
FYI
Saw an ad on tv that if you move your business to New York, you will pay ZERO corporate tax for 10 years.
The problem with all news is, there are lies, damn lies and statistics.
RE: Saw an ad on tv that if you move your business to New York, you will pay ZERO corporate tax for 10 years.
Make that the rusting UPSTATE part of New York.
That offer is not available to those living in NYC or the surrounding suburbs.
I have some business contacts who are now doing business in Canada, where PM Harper’s government is kicking our arse in this regard.
Have you ever been caught in the rain on a day the forecast said was supposed to be sunny and wondered, did the weatherman even look outside before issuing his forecast? Is his weather model really that bad?
I vaguely remember one scientific study that researched meteorologists, trying to identify those that achieved the highest accuracy, and to correlate factors in their methods and circumstances to see what contributed to that higher accuracy.
There was one factor that stood out - that correlated far more strongly with their accuracy than any other. Whether their office had a window.
Aye.
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