Please note that you may need a subscription to view the full text version of some of the following stories.

Editorials and Op-eds

November 6, 2009 - Washington Times (Op-ed), "Chasing Out the Multinationals," Robert J. Herbold, Managing Director, Herbold Group LLC; and Scott S. Powell, Managing Director, AlphaQuest LLC and Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution
[R]ecently the Obama administration proposed taxing the foreign profits of U.S.-based multinationals even when those profits were not repatriated, but backed away under pressure from executives who threatened to move offshore.... Washington needs to wake up and see the big picture. Now more than ever, it is all about keeping and creating jobs. We can't afford to chase multinational corporations out of the United States.

October 15, 2009 - Wall Street Journal (Editorial), "In Praise of Lobbyists"
The idea that raising corporate taxes would promote job creation never made sense, and the mere threat of higher taxes is one factor depressing business investment and slowing any recovery. So it's good news that the Administration seems to have set this job-killer aside, at least for now.

October 13, 2009 - Reuters Blogs (Op-ed), "Deferral Drama: Why Obama Corporate Tax Reversal Hints at a VAT," James Pethokoukis, Columnist, Reuters
...Not only would the tax plan hurt American corporate competitiveness (most other countries don’t tax their companies’ overseas profits), the changes would be a de facto $20 billion-a-year tax increase on business during a time of profound economic weakness. Bottom line: the tax changes were in no way incentives to add American jobs at a time when unemployment is climbing toward 10 percent. In this case, wealth and job creation trumped wealth redistribution and revenue raising.

September 12, 2009 - Idaho Statesman (Op-ed), "Obama's Tax Plan Would Have Dire Consequences," Ronald M. Nate, Economics Professor, BYU-Idaho
President Obama wants a change in U.S. corporate tax policy that would make it more expensive for U.S. firms to locate abroad. He claims it will protect U.S. jobs from being sent overseas while simultaneously increasing tax revenues. Unfortunately, the president's proposal would be disastrous; in fact, it would lead to more job losses and would reduce U.S. tax revenues.... Let's not be fooled by the confusing rhetoric of referring to the policy as a way to close loopholes or eliminate tax havens. The only things it closes are U.S. business doors (here and abroad), and the only things it eliminates are U.S. jobs and incomes.

August 9, 2009 - Elmira Star-Gazette and Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (Editorial), "Doing Harm to Business"
At a time when U.S. businesses are trying to endure the ravages of a worldwide recession, the last thing they need is for Congress to be slicing into their overseas operations and reducing or eliminating a tax deferral that now makes it possible for those businesses to compete with foreign companies already enjoying lower corporate tax rates in their own countries....The administration's worries about paying for important changes such as health care reform are legitimate, but trying to balance the books on the shoulders of U.S. companies with worldwide operations will only hurt American workers and investors who already have their backs against the wall. This proposal should be dumped before it even gets to Capitol Hill. It's bad for business.

News Clips

October 13, 2009 - Wall Street Journal, "Business Fends Off Tax Hit"
... [A] coalition of business groups persuaded nearly 300 large companies, from Adobe Systems Inc. to Xerox Corp. to Yum! Brands Inc., to put their names to a letter to all members of Congress. The letter criticized the deferred-tax proposal and the administration's rhetoric about it, particularly the White House's lumping together of companies that use deferrals, which are legal, with companies accused of illegal tax practices. Deferral, and related tax credits for companies competing in markets abroad, "are integral parts of the U.S. tax system -- not 'tax loopholes,' " the letter read. "It is inaccurate and misleading to represent them as such."

October 6, 2009 - Wall Street Journal, "Is a Corporate Tax Overhaul Next?"
Prospects for action on a corporate tax overhaul next year have increased dramatically in recent weeks, according to a variety of players. House lawmakers could start holding hearings on corporate taxes almost immediately after the Obama administration’s advisory tax panel releases its options list in early December, setting the stage for a momentous debate in 2010.... [B]usinesses are worried that the government’s financial situation has gotten so bad in the last year that Congress will impose the tax increases without an offsetting rate cut, unless corporations get on board quickly.

August 27, 2009 - Birmingham Business Journal, "Study: Global Firms Account for 44% of Alabama's GDP"
A new study showed Alabama’s 626 worldwide American companies generated 44 percent of the state’s gross domestic product in 2007. And those companies employed 298,200 people directly in the state and 534,400 people indirectly through their supply chains and spending, said a study put out by Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of U.S. companies that advocates for free trade and tax policies that expand opportunities for companies. These jobs were nearly 39 percent of all private-sector employment and more than 41 percent of total private-sector payroll.

June 9, 2009 - Dow Jones, "Critics Say Some Obama Tax Plans Go Beyond Closing Loopholes"
As the Obama administration seeks to boost tax income to offset vast stimulus expenditures, it has set its sights on two areas of corporate taxation, with implications that reach past the narrow confines of tax laws. Critics say the plans go beyond the administration's stated goal of closing corporate tax loopholes as a way to help cover the massive budget deficits. In one case - changes to the way multinationals are taxed - the administration is setting the country on a path that diverges from the rest of the world. In the other case - changes to inventory accounting - it's tinkering with a well-established business practice and picking on industries that use it. "These are not loopholes - they're fundamental parts of the fabric of the tax system," said Pamela Olson, a partner in the tax group at Skadden, Arps and a former assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department.

June 8, 2009 - Washington Times, "Tax-break Repeal Seen Costing Jobs"
A repeal of rules that govern the way the United States taxes the foreign earnings of American companies would make U.S. companies less competitive abroad, weaken their investments and lead to job losses at home, says a new economic report. The report, authored by Robert J. Shapiro, a former Clinton Administration economic official, and Aparna Mathur, a research fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, found that as many as 2.2 million American jobs could be put at risk by a repeal or scaling-back of the so-called corporate "tax deferral" law, a provision that allows companies to delay paying taxes.