Posted on 07/16/2014 9:53:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Heather Bresch grew up around politics. Her father is Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia and a former governor. She has heard him say repeatedly, “We live in the greatest country on Earth,” as he did in countless political advertisements. And it appeared to rub off on her: Ms. Bresch was named a “Patriot of the Year” in 2011 by Esquire magazine for helping to push through the F.D.A. Safety Innovation Act.
Until now, Ms. Bresch ran an unabashedly proud American company based in a Pittsburgh-area suburb, one of a handful of success stories that kept the once-thriving steel city relevant.
But on Monday, Ms. Bresch announced plans to renounce her company’s United States citizenship and instead become a company incorporated in the Netherlands, where the tax rates are lower. She did so by agreeing to acquire Abbott Laboratories’ European generic drug business.
Sorkin is a highly regarded reporter for the New York Times, so perhaps he feels free to express opinions that run contrary to Democratic Party orthodoxy:
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
No American corporation should be allowed to incorporate somewhere else in order to avoid taxes. Let them sell their goods and services where they are incorporated.
Geezzzzzz .......... What a fraud. I just read this on her Wiki bio ......
Controversy[edit]
Main article: Heather Bresch M.B.A. controversy
Bresch, the daughter of West Virginia U.S. Senator and former West Virginia governor Joe Manchin, earned her undergraduate degree from West Virginia University.[2] She was an MBA student at West Virginia University until 1998. In 2007, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Bresch claimed to have an MBA degree from West Virginia University, but that when asked the university disputed that. Soon after, the university awarded her an MBA despite her having completed only 26 of the required 48 credits. Following release of a report commissioned by the university (and written by a panel of faculty members from WVU and other universities), the university announced in April 2008 that it would rescind Bresch’s degree,[13] and WVU’s provost announced his resignation from that administrative post (while remaining on the faculty).[14] On June 6, 2008, WVU President Michael Garrison resigned in the wake of the scandal.[15]
The university initially stated that it had awarded the degree after correcting a “records error.”[16] Bresch claimed in April 2008 that she had arranged with the WVU Business School to have her “work experience” substitute for the outstanding coursework[17] - a claim reportedly denied by the then-head of the MBA program and rejected by the panel.[13]
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette characterized the panel’s report [18] as criticizing the university administration for having made “a ‘seriously flawed’ decision fraught with favoritism” in awarding Bresch the degree; Michael Garrison, WVU President at the time, was reported to be “a family friend and former business associate of Bresch”[13] and a former consultant and lobbyist for Mylan.[19]
According to the New York Times, Bresch said in a statement that she “continues to believe she did what was required to earn her degree.”[20] After WVU announced in February 2009 that it would not rescind other degrees where students’ records contained irregularities, Bresch wrote to the university demanding an explanation for what differentiated her situation from the others.[21] The panel investigating the situation had found that “the argument that other WVU students were similarly situated to Ms. Bresch...is not the case” and that some other students’ records contained only “a handful of relatively minor administrative problems”.[18]:p.11
In the 2008 election campaign, Manchin challenger Russ Weeks attempted to exploit the Bresch affair by offering “University of Mojo” diplomas, implying that Manchin was implicated in the attempt to grant his daughter an unearned degree. The Manchin campaign maintained that the governor had not been involved in the affair.[22]
We anticipate a comment from Jack Lew any moment.
That may work if money-hungry governments didn't keep jacking up taxes and simply assuming the corporations will pay them. The choice isn't operate in a high-tax jurisdiction vs. a low-tax non-US jurisdiction. The choice typically is operate in a jurisdiction with reasonable taxes or go out of business.
By the same token, the U.S. should not tax a U.S. company located in Germany for making a product in Germany, and selling it there.
Alternate headline:
Despite having a Dem senator for a father, drug company CEO demonstrates business acumen.
Liberals...we hate taxes for us...but not for you.
Congress doesn't give tax loopholes to generic drug manufacturers because generic drug manufacturing is cutthroat competitive and they don't do a lot of campaign contributing.
OTOH drug manufacturers with very profitable patented drugs(like Merck and Pfizer) do get loopholes plus extended patents so they do make campaign contributions.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the tax code is more uniform(fewer loopholes) so a generic drug manufacturer has relatively lower taxes there.
So, we are talking about institutional corruption or systemic corruption or legal corruption and no one is better at it than the US Congress.
Who can fault the company for fleeing high, repressive taxation but we can fault the daughter of the Dem Sen Manchin for being ‘unpatriotic’..... as defined by Uncle Joe Biden.
Cant spell liberal without the L-I-E
On October 11, 2007 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette contacted West Virginia University to confirm academic credentials claimed by Bresch, including an EMBA degree. Research done by the Post Gazette indicated that Bresch’s course work ceased with 22 out of the 48-credit-hour program remaining to be completed. The WVU Registrar told the newspaper that Bresch had earned an undergraduate degree, but did not finish her graduate degree. However, On October 15, 2007, a university spokeswoman announced that WVU officials had verified that Ms. Bresch had “completed all the requirements for an executive masters of business administration degree,” but did not receive her diploma because she failed to pay a $50 graduation fee. She attributed the misunderstanding to the business school’s failure to transfer records from nearly half of her course work.
On October 22, 2007, R. Stephen Sears, the Milan Puskar Dean of WVU’s business school, sent a letter to WVU’s admissions and records office retroactively granting Bresch an EMBA. Six classes were added to her record with letter grades, and two classes with “Incomplete” grades were given letter grades.
The report’s panel found that high-ranking university administrators “cherry-picked” information and that grades were “simply pulled from thin air” to grant Bresch the degree nearly 10 years after she was supposed to graduate. The panel concluded administrators lacked documentation to prove Bresch’s claims, relied too heavily on verbal assertions and caved to political pressure. The report did not find that the university president directly interfered, but it concluded the presence of his chief of staff in the decision-making meeting created “palpable” pressure.
Chairman of the West Virginia University’s Health Sciences Center neurosurgery department organized a faculty letter in support. Some faculty members felt pressured to sign the letter, which had 23 signatures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Bresch_M.B.A._controversy
Just on Monday, the Irish drug maker Shire cleared the way for a merger with AbbVie, the drug maker based in Chicago, and Walgreen is considering an inversion through a deal with Alliance Boots, a European drugstore chain.
“It’s not like I’ve not been vocal and up there talking to anybody who’d listen to me,” Ms. Bresch told me in an interview about the crusade she had been on in Washington for years, talking to lawmakers about overhauling the corporate tax code to make United States companies more competitive. “But you know what they all say? ‘Yeah, uh huh, O.K. Uh huh.’ ”
She added: “We were one of the last ones in our sector to do this. So it’s not like I was blazing the trail. If you put on your business hat, you can’t maintain competitiveness by staying at a competitive disadvantage. I mean you just can’t. The odds are just not in your favor.”
Ms. Bresch, who said the company’s current effective tax rate is about 25 percent, said the rate would come down to 21 percent in the first year of the deal and then move into the high teens after three to five years. Mylan will continue to pay taxes in the United States on its domestic profits, but not on its business operations abroad.
The more things change the more they remain the same. I remember when the Logan WV school district couldn’t locate 250,000 thousand. Then they issued a release and said it was a purchase of pencils.
How does this woman have even a shred of integrity left? How can anyone in her company have any respect for her for lying about such?
The only way a woman like her could get into such a position is if her father is a senator.
Seems her father would have advised her better than this. I find it scary that people can lie like this and apparently not be bothered by it.
True
Since a corporation is now considered a person by the Supreme Court, they should live by the same tax rules.
Since a corporation is now considered a person by the Supreme Court, they should live by the same tax rules
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It is. It is giving up American citizenship.
When did countries become citizens?
This situation is akin to an American citizen who lives in America, hiding their cash offshore.
We all hate when crooks in Congress hide their millions but we are not supposed to be angry when companies hide billions?
Steal small and go to jail. Steal big and be a respected member of the community.
Being angry with some corruption and not caring about bigger corruption is stupid.
When did countries become citizens?
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When they have all the rights of an individual.
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