Tax Avoidance In Silicon Valley

Like most taxpayers, many politicians also agree that tax reform is necessary in the United States, but that is

With the advancements in the globalization of the economy, corporations are finding more ways to avoid the extraordinary tax rates set in place of The United States Of America. With the loss of revenue from large companies dodging taxes the government must make up for the loss by either raising taxes or changing the tax code. A recent company to avoid american taxes is Johnson Controls, a company that “…would not exist as it is today but for American taxpayers, who paid $80 billion in 2008…”(The Editorial Board). This use of American resources to get through tough times, and run to another county during an economic incline is an act that calls for reform in the American tax system. However congress has not passed any legislation to fix the

However, the companies only have to pay the U.S. tax for foreign revenues once they bring the profits back to the United States. As a result of these current tax laws, U.S. companies that seek to avoid high corporate tax rates hold their foreign earned profits overseas. “It just makes no sense to pay a substantial tax on it,” said Joseph Kennedy, a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (Rubin, R.). It is far too easy for an IT corporation to create a patent in a foreign country and direct revenue to a corporation within that country, thus avoiding the much higher U.S. tax rates. According to Joint Committee on Taxation estimates, the lost revenue is increasing over time as corporations find even more creative ways to make their U.S. profits look like offshore income (Richards, K., & Craig, J.). As result, multinational American corporations have as much as $2 trillion held in overseas subsidiaries and if brought into the United States with the current tax laws, the federal government could benefit by nearly $50 billion per year.

The less taxes we pay, the more lives we save. The United States has the highest corporate tax rate of the 34 developed, free market nations that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (DECD). Unlike other countries, the United States pays a marginal corporate tax rate of 35% at the federal level and 39.2% state taxes are accounted. This is causing thousands of corporations to move operations out of the United States and into other countries. Therefore, the United States should lower the taxes of big corporations.

More than 25 years ago, there was a major overhaul of the U.S. corporate tax system. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced a corporate tax rate from 46 percent to 34 (Gross & Schadewald, 2012, p. 40). The federal budget deficit forced the government to lower the corporate tax rate. The level of corporate tax rate in the USA was lower than it was in Canada, Germany, and France. The tax rate for corporations remained unchanged until 2011. In 2011, fiscal barriers led to changes of the tax reform. Today, the reform package includes the exclusion of deductions and credits, and tax rate reduction. However, the net effect of those components may boost the tax liability of domestic companies.

In response to the need, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was enabled. The reform was intended to be revenue neutral, but broaden the tax base previously held. Congress had depressed marginal rates, and concurrently got rid of tax shelters, tax preferences, and other opportunities for tax avoidance. It now seems what worked as great solution in the past is not working now, “The Tax Reform Act of 1986 has not proved a stable outcome: Congress has since narrowed the tax base and raised income tax rates. Internationalization of the economy raises the question of whether corporate income taxes can be relied upon as a stable source of revenues. Moreover, the tax system is also under continual reexamination because federal deficits of $300–$400 billion a year are now commonplace…” (Greatz, 2007, p.

Virtually all citizens and politicians alike, agree that the current tax code is entirely too complex, yet nearly every year the system gets more complicated, not less. The reason is that simplicity almost always clashes with the other goals within the tax policy. Most people believe income taxes should be enforceable, fair, and beneficial to economic wealth, all while maintaining simplicity. But even those who agree on the necessity of these goals often disagree about the hierarchical importance of each. As a result, the tax policies usually represent a portion of each competing goal, leaving no room for simplicity. For example, most countries tailor tax liabilities to the characteristics of the individual taxpayer. That can make taxes more fair, but also more complex. Income must first be traced from a business to the

"The last time that Congress attempted and succeeded in reforming the tax code was 30 years ago," Huffman said. "Since then, special interests have lobbied for special treatment and carved out loopholes in the tax code that favor the politically connected over the average American."

It is confusing who actually bears the burden of the corporate income tax. Ordinary people believe, incorrectly, that it is paid by corporations, while owners and managers of corporations often assume, just as incorrectly, that the tax is

Reforming the US tax code into a document a fraction of its current size would help elevate this type of abuse and make it more difficult for people to misuse its content for their own personal agenda. Rogue agents are not the only ones who abuse this monstrosity, the more tax savvy a filer is, the better they are at tax avoidance with so many area to benefit. Whereas a less proficient tax filer or one who cannot afford a professional to prepare their taxes are likely to lose out on deductions or credits they may have otherwise been able to claim had they known about them. Also, with so many parts to the tax code coupled with the number of tax filers, it is impossible to audit are tax returns filed by the shrinking size of the Internal Revenue Service employees. This allows for more criminals to commit fraud in their filings.

patricianly to prevent commercial inversions; and to avoid aggravating U.S. public debts and deficits. However, major tax policy research centers and many tax specialists are skeptical of some of the planned goals for these goals.

Tax inversion can be commonly found to be used in America. Tax inversion is when a corporation or business relocates their operation overseas to reduce how much taxes they have to pay. When companies are picking a country to relocate to they are mostly looking for one that has lower tax rates and little to no corporate requirements. I can see in way why corporations take this route when it comes to high tax rates, but looking at it from a bigger picture I believe that corporation should not be allowed to relocate to avoid tax rates. Taxes are vital to the economy as they play a big role in our life every day. Taxes pay for public schools, police department, roadwork, public transportation, and much more. I have personally used many of the services

Many large corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes, including what is legally required of them. They use tax breaks, loop holes, and so on. Many corporations pay no federal income taxes at all, stashing their cash in off shore tax havens around the world… causing us to lose over $100 billion a year in revenue.

Both the American people and members of the Federal Government have long griped about the current U.S. Personal Income Tax System. Bush’s Advisory Panel for Federal Tax Reform stated that, “the complexity of our tax code breeds a perception of unfairness and creates

The United States is in a recession; it has been facing some of the worse economic times since the Great Depression in the 1930’s. One option to fix the economy is to change the corporate tax rate. To lower it or to raise it, that is the question economists have been speculating. America's high corporate tax rate and worldwide system of taxation discourages U.S. companies from sending their foreign-source revenue home, which makes U.S. companies defenseless to foreign acquisition from the international opponents (Camp). Corporations and United States citizens have been fighting for a tax reform, which would hopefully help the American economy; either by lowering the corporate tax, or by raising the tax.