Obama cracks down on tax havens

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 9:12 PM Posted by Beijing News


President Barack Obama, decrying "egregious" tax abuses, announced Monday savings of 210 billion dollars by squeezing offshore havens and US firms' ability to profit from outsourcing jobs.

Vowing that all US taxpayers would start "contributing their fair share," Obama said the shakeup was "a downpayment on the larger tax reform we need to make" as he battles the nation's worst recession since World War II.

But the reforms submitted to Congress came under fierce attack from big business and Republicans, who argued they would backfire by driving more rather than fewer US companies to cheaper locations abroad.

Claiming 10-year savings of 210 billion dollars, Obama said the money will be used "to reduce the deficit, cut taxes for American businesses that are playing by the rules, and provide meaningful relief for hard-working families."

Under the plan announced by Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the Internal Revenue Service IRS will get nearly 800 new agents to go after offshore tax avoidance.

Overall, according to the administration, companies exploit an array of tax loopholes and shady practices to pay an average of just two percent on their foreign profits.

The reform fulfills one of Obama's key campaign pledges, by ending the ability of US companies to "defer" taxes on profits made overseas after they shut down facilities at home and ship the jobs elsewhere.

Such "egregious examples" and "distorted provisions" inserted into US tax law by special interests would end, Obama vowed to reporters.

"I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world. But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens."

Geithner said that with the exception of research and development expenses, companies would no longer receive deductions on their US taxes for their offshore investments until they pay taxes on their offshore profits.

In a statement, the White House said this would recoup 60.1 billion dollars from 2011 to 2019. Some of the savings will fund a permanent tax credit for research and development costs, it said.

The plan would also close another "deferral" loophole under which companies can deduct their US taxes from their foreign taxes, yielding 43.0 billion dollars back to the Treasury over the next 10 years.

That loophole, Obama said, lets "some of our largest companies tell the IRS that they're paying taxes abroad, tell foreign governments they're paying taxes elsewhere, and avoid paying taxes anywhere."

But the US Chamber of Commerce said the United States is the only major economy that imposes double taxation on its companies' overseas earnings.

"Since other countries don't subject their companies to double taxation, US companies need deferral to stay competitive in the global marketplace," it warned.

Obama's revamp would also force US firms to report foreign subsidiaries as separate companies to the IRS, rather than hide them in offshore addresses, raising 95.2 billion dollars over the next decade, the White House said.

"On the campaign, I used to talk about the outrage of a building in the Cayman Islands that had over 12,000 businesses claim this building as their headquarters," Obama said.

But he warned the Obama plan as a whole "seems particularly harmful to our shared goal of creating more American jobs rather than driving them overseas by increasing the cost of job creation here at home."





A stuntman walks on a tightrope in China to break a world record. REUTERS/Stringer

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