Four Reasons to Applaud Apple’s Tax Planning
The Senate is holding a Kangaroo Court designed to smear Apple for not voluntarily coughing up more tax revenue than the company actually owes. Here are four things you need to know. Apple is fully...
View ArticleRand Paul Debunks the Shameful Demagoguery against Apple
Senator Rand Paul is perhaps even better than I thought he would be. The Founding Fathers would be proud He already is playing a very substantive role on policy, ranging from his actions of big-picture...
View ArticleThe Tax Foundation 1 – New York Times 0
Whether it’s American politicians trying to extort more taxes from Apple or international bureaucrats trying to boost the tax burden on firms with a global corporate tax return, the left is...
View ArticleDebating Tax Havens
I never thought I would wind up in Costco’s monthly magazine, but I was asked to take part in a pro-con debate on “Should offshore tax havens be illegal?” Given my fervent (and sometimes risky) support...
View ArticleMore Americans Going Galt
President Obama promised he would unite the world…and he’s right. Representatives from dozens of nations have bitterly complained about an awful piece of legislation, called the Foreign Account Tax...
View ArticleMore Compelling Evidence that America’s Corporate Tax System Is Pointlessly...
It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the United States has the world’s worst corporate tax system. We definitely have the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, and we may have the...
View ArticleShould Companies Do What’s Best for Government, or Should They Do What’s Best...
I’m in favor of free markets. That means I’m sometimes on the same side as big business, but it also means that I’m often very critical of big business. That’s because large companies are largely...
View ArticleSensible Swiss Voters Crush Proposed Minimum Wage Mandate
I’m beginning to think that people from some nations are smarter and more rational than others. That may explain, for instance, why voters in Estonia support fiscal restraint while voters in France...
View ArticleMore Companies Escaping America’s Masochistic Corporate Tax System
Last August, I shared a list of companies that “re-domiciled” in other nations so they could escape America’s punitive “worldwide” tax system. This past April, I augmented that list with some...
View ArticleIs FATCA the Worst Part of the Internal Revenue Code?
I’ve argued that subsidies for the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are the most destructively wasteful outlays in the federal budget. At least on a per-dollar-spent...
View ArticlePolicy Makers Should Make the Tax System Better rather than Banning Corporate...
One of the worst things about working in Washington is that it’s so easy to get frustrated about the fact-free nature of political debates. For instance, there’s now a big controversy about companies...
View ArticleEmbarrassment Alert: America’s Tax System Ranks Below Italy, Greece, and Mexico
I’ve complained over and over again that America’s tax code is a nightmare that undermines competitiveness and retards growth. Our aggregate fiscal burden may not be as high as it is for many of our...
View ArticleAmerica’s Anti-Competitive and Anti-Comity International Tax System, Part I
Most of us will never be directly impacted by the international provisions of the internal revenue code. That’s bad news because it presumably means we don’t have a lot of money, but it’s good news...
View ArticleFour Big Takeaways from Obama’s New Budget…and the Challenges for the GOP
The President today released his budget for fiscal year 2016, a document that also shows what will happen to taxes, spending, and red ink over the next 10 years if the White House’s budget is adopted....
View ArticleAmerica’s Anti-Competitive and Anti-Comity International Tax System, Part II
Last September, I wrote that America’s business tax system is a nightmare that simultaneously undermines the competitiveness of American companies while also causing lots of irritation in other...
View ArticleGrading the Rubio-Lee Tax Reform Plan
In my 2012 primer on fundamental tax reform, I explained that the three biggest warts in the current system. 1. High tax rates that penalize productive behavior. 2. Pervasive double taxation that...
View ArticleThe Venal Corruption of the Political Class
In the past week, I’ve written two columns (here and here) extolling the benefits of federalism. So I now feel compelled to warn that my support for decentralization is not motivated by some...
View ArticleCorporate Inversions: Obama Fiddles While the Corporate Tax Burns U.S....
The United States has what is arguably the worst business tax system of any nation. That’s bad for the shareholders who own companies, and it’s also bad for workers and consumers. And it creates such a...
View ArticleIf You Think Corporate Inversions Are Bad, Blame Politicians rather than Pfizer
Here we go again. The politicians in Washington are whining and complaining that “evil” and “greedy” corporations are bring traitors by engaging in corporate inversions so they can leave America. The...
View ArticleWhy Do Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Want to Undermine Jobs and...
What’s the difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton? I suspect that most people would cite differences in personal ethics, but I’m a policy wonk so I actually think the leading candidates...
View ArticleCorrecting White House Anti-Inversion Propaganda
I wrote recently about the Pfizer-Allergan merger and made the case that it was a very sensible way to protect the interests of workers, consumers, and shareholders. That’s the good news. Why? Because...
View ArticleThe “Race to the Bottom” and Global Minimum Corporate Taxes
Imagine if you had the chance to play basketball against a superstar from the NBA like Stephen Curry. No matter how hard you practiced beforehand, you surely would lose. For most people, that would be...
View ArticleRand Paul’s Heroic and Vital Fight against Global Scheme to Destroy Financial...
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) arguably is the worst feature of the internal revenue code. It’s an odious example of fiscal imperialism that is based on a very bad policy agenda. But...
View ArticleHillary Clinton’s “Exit Tax” Is an Unseemly Example of Banana Republic Economics
If you get into the weeds of tax policy and had a contest for parts of the internal revenue code that are “boring but important,” depreciation would be at the top of the list. After all, how many...
View ArticleWill the International Nightmare of FATCA Finally Be Repealed?
Republicans promised voters all sorts of pro-growth reforms. They assured us that they learned a lesson about the dangers of expanding government and calling it “compassionate conservatism.” Give us...
View ArticleBased on His Leaked 2005 Tax Data, Donald Trump Should Move to Italy (or the...
The multi-faceted controversy over Donald Trump’s taxes has been rejuvenated by a partial leak of his 2005 tax return. Interestingly, it appears that Trump pays a lot of tax. At least for that one...
View ArticleThe Goal of Business Tax Reform Should Be Enhanced Competitiveness, not More...
The Republican tax plan is based on some very attractive principles. Lowering the corporate tax rate. Ending the tax bias against new investment. Eliminating harmful loopholes. Reducing double...
View ArticleAs Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Are about to Learn, America’s Worldwide Tax...
I realize that we’re in the midst of an important tax battle in Washington and that I should probably be writing about likely amendments to the Senate tax bill. The bad Rubio-Lee proposal to increase...
View ArticleFour Things to Understand about the Taxation of International Businesses
A few years ago, I put together a basic primer on corporate taxation. Everything I wrote is still relevant, but I didn’t include much discussion about international topics. In part, that’s because...
View ArticleWill High-Value Taxpayers Vote with their Feet Against Biden?
For most of the world, American citizenship is highly coveted. Indeed, foreigners have even been willing to invest a lot of money to increase the odds of getting to the United States. But changing...
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