Free Republic

How should we stop corporations from leaving the United States, as both presidential candidates have vowed to do? After Pfizer announced this year that it wanted to merge with the Ireland-based Allergan in a maneuver known as a corporate inversion, the Obama administration put in new tax rules that effectively scuttled the deal. President Obama characterized inversions as a way American companies to “get out of paying their fair share of taxes here at home.” Last month, the Chamber of Commerce sued to block the new rules, saying that the administration “simply rewrote the law unilaterally.” We need to put...

The Treasury Department issued two new rules Monday to make it much more difficult for American companies to leave the country. Technically, what the companies do is a "tax inversion," taking over a foreign firm and adopting its target's address as its headquarters. By doing this, it can pay only the foreign tax rate on the profits it makes abroad. This is attractive because taxes in other developed nations are invariably lower than those in the United States. Yes, ours are the highest in the world. Monday's two rule changes were President Obama's third attempt to end corporate inversions and...

A senior Democratic tax writer said Friday that the Obama administration could take unilateral action targeting offshore tax deals before Congress leaves town for the midterm elections. Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) said that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a group of House Ways and Means Democrats on Wednesday that the White House would roll out administrative actions against the recent influx of so-called inversions “when they’re ready.” “That could be next week,” Levin said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. Lew has only said that the administration would decide in the “very near future” how to respond...

It's official. Chrysler has now wholly-merged with Italian auto maker, Fiat. It had taken a bit over five years for Fiat to gain total control of the bailed out, once-American Chrysler Corporation. Back in June of 2009, President Obama gifted (payment was made in the form of "technology") an initial 20% stake in Chrysler to Fiat as part of his orchestrated auto bailout process. Fiat parlayed that into full ownership and is now showing its gratitude to the American taxpayers who helped fund the deal by relocating Chrysler's headquarters to London ; a move which will lessen the company's...