Posted on 06/21/2016 4:29:00 PM PDT by HomerBohn
(MAY 10: Sens. Al Franken, D-Minn., center, and Chris Coons, D-Del., make their way to a new conference in the Capitol with Democratic members of the Committee to accept the delivery of a questionnaire and documents from Merrick Garland, nominee to the Supreme Court, May 10, 2016)
If you think that multinational corporations take measures to avoid paying your country's taxes, you have two ways to deal with it. You could reform your tax code so that the incentive to avoid taxation disappears. Or, you could go the route of Stuart Smalley. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota is among a group of senators who want U.S. multinational corporations to publicly name the countries where they book profits.
In a recent letter to the secretary of the Treasury, Franken and several colleagues called for country-by-country disclosure of foreign profits as a way to head off accounting maneuvers many corporations use to redirect revenue from countries where they are earned to tax havens.
"Multinational companies tend to make these bogus transactions where they want to book as much profit in the low-tax countries and have as little profit in the high-tax countries," Franken said. "It's eroding the tax base of the developed world."
Minnesota multinationals were generally nonresponsive to Star Tribune requests for comment on the transparency measure. Medtronic, St. Jude Medical and 3M declined to comment, while an Ecolab spokesman said the company "complies with all tax regulations and pays taxes in the countries where the income is earned."
"We would prefer to see effort toward comprehensive corporate tax reform to create a system which eliminates the need for companies to keep money offshore to remain competitive," spokesman Roman Blahoski added.
The cost of a draconian effort to extract taxes through inquisition, both in terms of operational expense and depressed economic activity, has to eclipse any revenue which it might generate. To the extent multinationals shift money around to avoid taxes, the effort would only be worth it if tax rates remain noncompetitive. Fix the rates, and get the revenue.
Indeed, research has shown that reduced tax rates can result in higher revenue than that collected under higher tax rates. Of course, for people like Franken, it's not actually about the revenue. It's about punishing success under the premise that it was achieved through exploitation.
I think the public has the right to know where the senators keep their cash.
I want to know how these Senators GET their cash.
Based on the net worth of these clowns, we indeed have a House of Lords in America.
Franken - an unfunny clown-faced moron.
Coons - self-avowed Maexist who Delaware Republicans voted for, just to punish Christine O’Donnell.
I used to agree with you guys but, since these people(companies) are making money on the cheap labor express I am no longer interested in protecting them. All the money they made that way and penalties included deserves to be taxed.
The House and Senate should disclose where they keep their cash first
*who’s*
On the whole, the U.S. Senate is a disgrace.
Imagine the reaction of our Founders were they to come back to review this current crop?
Jesus, Mary & Joseph.
I’m more interested in Senators telling us where and from whom they GET their cash.
A surprisingly high percentage enter the senate with no more than average wealth and exit the Senate as millionaires.
Quite an accomplishment for everyday senators on a salary of $174,000.
Majority and Minority Leaders make $193,400 and the President Pro Tempore is paid $223,500.
And their retirement pay is the same as their salary.
Is Senator Coons acting niggardly?
(Double racism!)
But Dumbass Al is o.k. with his buddy, Governot Mark Dayton, keeping his cash across the border in South Dakota.
Hey Al....FU!
LOL. Nice one.
The Senators have run out of places to hide theirs and are researching new places to hide their stash?
bump
Glad you said ugly otherwise I would have thought you were Bragging.
They are, by and large, more crooked than a dog’s hind leg.
Collectively, what a sorry bunch of liars and phonies they are. In this gaggle we have a Susan Collins who is truly a RINO joining her leftist buddies in ‘crafting’ the opening salvo on the 2nd Amendment. Hopefully, their ranks will be thinned by at least a Paul Ryan. Go Nehlen!
There are so many. Ohio, for example, has a Rob Portman, supposedly a Republican, but who votes with the Democrat weasel too often.
Americans need to review the ACU website in order to see how few of these rats vote in accordance with, and to support the Constitution.
He is the epitome of a well-fed hog, who is as worthy of supporting constituents as Obama is of leading a nation.
America needs to return to the days when the state legislatures appointed the senators for a four year term and their salaries paid out of the respective states’ treasuries.
Congress first.
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