Ballmer calls Obama taxes a moving issue
Summary
Ballmer said that if Congress enacts President Obama's plans to impose higher corporate taxes, a sensible thing for Microsoft to do would be to move jobs offshore.
Topics
Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer offered an unwelcome economics lesson to the Obama administration this week: Higher taxes have consequences that Washington policy-makers may not especially like.
Ballmer said Wednesday that if Congress enacts President Obama's plans to impose higher corporate taxes, a sensible thing for Microsoft to do would be to move jobs offshore.
"It makes U.S. jobs more expensive," Ballmer said, according to Bloomberg News. "We're better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S."
Last month, the president announced a plan to rewrite tax law by preventing U.S.-based multinational companies from "deferring" and keeping profits offshore, which can lower their tax bills.
The current U.S. corporate tax system is unusual because it taxes income that Microsoft and other companies make in other countries, even if they already paid foreign taxes on that income. That makes U.S.-based companies less competitive than, say, Irish firms that don't pay taxes on foreign income and aren't hit by double taxation; deferred taxation is a way to lessen the sting.
If deferred taxation is eliminated, it becomes more tempting for a company to move its headquarters from Seattle to Dublin. That's voting with your feet.
That's why business groups have opposed the president's plan. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it will "impede growth in the U.S. economy, (and) cause the loss of jobs." The National Foreign Trade Council called it "counterproductive."
Microsoft says it employs about 95,000 people worldwide, and about 56,500 in the United States.
This article was originally posted on CBSNews.com.
Talkback Most Recent of 108 Talkback(s)
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The real problem...
Is income taxes in general. Where did we get the idea that they are acceptable? The solution is to go to solely consumptive taxation -- thereby eliminating the entire income tax code -- and DO SEVERE CUTS TO SIZE OF GOVERNMENT!!! The behemoth is out of control.
techboy_z5th Jun 2009 -
Realy?
I dont mind getting taxed if the money is spent on useful things like the NHS and the police. But it does boil my blood when it is spoilt on nanny state projects.
jdbukis@...5th Jun 2009 -
NHS is the epitomy of the nanny state
if you mean National Health System.
frgough5th Jun 2009 -
So it's better to let poor people die then?
We need government that is not business obsessed.
All they ever talk about is business, business, business.
That explains why they are caught with their hands in the expenses till.
Greed should have no home.
fr0thy25th Jun 2009 -
Well the politicans ...
only support those companies who give them money... Look at the disgrace with the bonus's for AIG, and how it just sort of got slipped in there. Did you know Obama got $200,000+ dollars from AIG. His book should have been titled Audacity of Deceit
mrlinux5th Jun 2009 -
Care is always provided for those who need it
I'm amazed at the "don't let the poor people die" cry of the left...poor people are not turned away if they seek medical care. There will always be some who don't get care whether they can afford it or not. Having family employed in the medical profession, I know what I am saying is true. If the government takes over health care, THEN you'll see people who don't get the care they need - while the gov makes the call one who is 'worth saving' and who isn't. And why oh why do you have an issue with business? Who the heck do you think is paying the bulk of the taxes - and these taxes are stressing the businesses to the point of breaking. Obama's economic policies are a recipe for disaster for this country. I'd like nothing more than to be proved wrong, but there's little doubt. If I'm wrong, I eat my words and celebrate his success - but again, it's not likely. Shall we run a roll call of the other 'socialistic' countries and their success with nationalized industries and nationalized health care? Since when is prosperity a bad thing? Why do people immigrate to the US from all over the world? It's to make their OWN way, not depend on the government to look after them. Wake up, America, before it is too late. I wasn't a huge fan of Bush, but I'd take him back in a second!!!!!!1
run4jc6th Jun 2009 -
Which is of course why...
The "charity" hospitals around the nation have been going belly up providing care to those who need it.
Why? Because there are more and more who need care and less and less who can pay jacked up health insurance rates for less and less coverage. Or have you missed the "Health insurance? We don't do health insurance" mantra from more and more employers.
zkiwi6th Jun 2009 -
It is illegal . . .
for ANY hospital or Public medical facility in the United States to refuse health care to anyone. It doesn't matter if they can pay or not.
There are NO Charity hospitals in the US, except for those who are run BY charities. ALL OTHERS are run for profit.
JLHenry7th Jun 2009 -
There is a fly in your ointment...
Shall we run a roll call of the other 'socialistic'
countries and their success with nationalized
industries and nationalized health care? Since when is
prosperity a bad thing?
The "socialist" countries of Europe, Canada, (and even
Cuba) have populations that are healthier, live longer,
and have far lower child mortality rates than the US. By
far the greatest factor in personal bankruptcies in the
US is the lack of, or inadequate, health insurance. The
statistics are easy to find....
snberk3417th Jun 2009 -
They also have . . .
higher unemployment, more social unrest (witness France), and are more likely to be racially and culturally bigoted (the previously mentioned France. Google the treatment of Muslims in Europe, and France in particular).
JLHenry7th Jun 2009 -
There is nothing nanny about NHS.
There are two types of people in this country....those that have have faced hardships due to health care and those that have been fortunate enough not to. Those that are fortunate walk around thinking they've avoided this through their own actions not knowing that all it takes is one medical even to land them in the poor house no matter what they have done.
I'll never understand people ranting about socialism only to turn aroud and pay an insurance premium...with insurance being a socialist construct. I guess as long as some fat cat makes a profit then socialism is ok.
storm14k6th Jun 2009 -
We live in a democracy
And that's the problem. Democracies are subject to demagoguery,
bribery of the voter, etc. which is why the founding fathers went for a
constitutional federated republic with a limited franchise.frgough5th Jun 2009 -
We live in a Republic
...and to this republic for which it stands...
mikefarinha5th Jun 2009 -
All socialists do is to tax everyone else
If you open a business in US, you are screwed by corporate tax, minimum wages, unions, regulation fees, environmental charges, welfare obligations and all that. To make ends meet, you have to price such large overhead in your products only to be beaten by global competition that doesn't have to deal w/ that much nonsense. At the end of the day, you just say, "OK pal, here's the deal: I'll move my business and jobs overseas where I'm allowed to thrive. You guys can shove all that welfare crap up your own ^*#".
The socialists then go nuts at you the business owner, "OMG! How dare this business owner act so selfish? You know what? We are still gonna tax the pants off you even if you move the business overseas." Finally people like me have had enough of such hypocrisy and tell the crooks, "Look, it's not the business owner being greedy. It's indeed you guys are doing it."
The socialists completely deny it, "No, no, no. You don't understand. We deserve to earn this salary even tho we produce very little value. We deserve to live in this big house that we cannot afford. We are only asking other people to pay their fair share so that we can live a life we have not earned. If you refuse to cover it for us, you are the greedy one, not us."
You know you can only push the hard working American people for so long. See all these tea parties lately? I smell a revolution is coming. Someday a boiling point is reached, and the indignant hard working Americans will bring out their pitch forks to cleanse this nation of socialists once for all.
LBiege5th Jun 2009 -
The way democrooks manage economy
Imagine you have a farm of hens. You understand that you have to feed them so that they can lay eggs for you. Then the democrooks / liberals come in and say, "You have to feed them and wait for the eggs? Why bother? It's such a hustle. You should just kill them and then cut their belly up to take out the egg. It's fast and easy. Let's do it".LBiege5th Jun 2009
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