We Report. You Enjoy.

This is a “witch” hunt I can enjoy…

I heard something on NPR yesterday that I have trouble believing. A guest on the morning show described a practice where a large company, headquartered here, can take their earnings in another country so that they do not need to pay U.S. taxes. That part I believe to be true but he went on to say that some companies, News Corp. being one, not only pay no taxes but actually receive a rebate. Isn’t that the equivalent of taxpayers subsidizing these companies? I think I must have misunderstood them.

@DElurker: No. You didn’t. Add to that Exxon/Mobile, BP, Bachmann Christian Counseling…

@DElurker: The part about News Corp was due to a wrongheaded (and since corrected) Reuters story yesterday. News Corp had changed its FY dates, leading the columnist to think there was a tax rebate hidden in there somewhere.

But in general, yes. Corporate tax avoidance is a major industry.

@DElurker: All true. Corporations are holding massive off-shore cash reserves because they may be asked to pay taxes on that money if it’s brought back to the US. This is why you may have read about a recently renewed push by Republicans to grant these corporation (GE and its ilk) a “tax amnesty” so that they can repatriate their profits back to the US tax free. If this sounds like insane fiction, it’s not. They did it in 2004 in the name of boosting the US eCONomy and look at the avalanche of jobs that produced!

@nojo: Yeah, I think it was at Salon where I read the corrected information. News Corpse did pay something like $4.8B in taxes but still substantially lower than the top rate for their earnings.