Opinion: Corporate tax deserters should stop getting benefits of being American
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Apple is only the latest big global American corporation to use foreign tax shelters to avoiding paying its fair share of U.S. taxes. It鈥檚 just another form of corporate desertion.
Corporations聽are聽deserting聽America by hiding their profits abroad or even shifting their corporate headquarters to another nation because they want lower taxes abroad. And some politicians say the only way to stop these聽desertions聽is to reduce聽corporate聽tax rates in the U.S. so they won鈥檛 leave.
Wrong. If we start trying to match lower聽corporate聽tax rates around the world, there鈥檚 no end to it.聽
Instead, the President should use his executive power to end the financial incentives that encourage this type of聽corporate聽desertion. President Obama has already begun, but there is much left that could be done.
In addition, corporation聽that desert America by sheltering a large portion of their profits abroad or moving their headquarters to another country should no longer be entitled to the advantages of being American.聽
1.听They shouldn鈥檛 be allowed to influence the U.S. government. They shouldn鈥檛 be allowed to contribute to U.S. political campaigns, or lobby Congress, or participate in U.S. government agency rule-making proceedings. And they no longer have the right to sue foreign companies in U.S. courts for acts committed outside the United States.聽
2.听They shouldn鈥檛 be entitled to generous government contracts.聽鈥淏uy American鈥� provisions of the law should be applied to them.聽
3.听Their assets around the world shouldn鈥檛 any longer be protected by the U.S. government. If their factories and equipment are expropriated somewhere around the world, they shouldn鈥檛 expect the United States to negotiate or threaten sanctions, or use our armed forces to protect their investments. And if their intellectual property 鈥� patents, trademarks, trade names, copyrights 鈥� are disregarded, that鈥檚 their problem too. Don鈥檛 expect any help from us.
In fact, their interests should be of no concern to the U.S. government 鈥� in trade negotiations, climate negotiations, international treaties reconciling American law with the laws of other countries, or international disputes over access to resources.聽
They don鈥檛 get to be represented by the U.S. government because they鈥檙e no longer American.
It鈥檚 simple logic. If聽corporations聽want to desert America in order to pay less in taxes, that鈥檚 their business. But they should no longer have the benefits that come with being American.聽
This story originally appeared on .
