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These tax repatriation deals are getting to be like "immigration reform". Once you start doing it, no matter how much you say "This is the last time! Honest!"
by gozur88 11y ago
These tax repatriation deals are getting to be like "immigration reform". Once you start doing it, no matter how much you say "This is the last time! Honest!" people factor the next amnesty into their calculations. In both cases the fact that people believe it will happen increases the likelihood they are correct.
I would love to see the US corporate income tax eliminated, but this kind of one-time tax amnesty thing is bad policy.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y ago> In both cases the fact that people believe it will happen increases the likelihood they are correct. More like the people that want it to happen have enough collective influence to buy off Congress to make it happen so long as there isn't a pesky POTUS with an itchy veto pen finger.
- gozur88 11y agoDoesn't matter. If companies can afford to wait (and they can), Congress will eventually be seduced by the prospect of billions in free tax money. When Congress finally does it they can pay off all their interest groups without raising taxes. Nobody has to be paid off. As time goes on, that pot of money gets bigger and bigger. The more people expect a tax amnesty, the more companies will just leave the money where it is instead of repatriating and paying taxes at the current rate, which just sweetens the pot even more. Also, the president isn't any less beholden to donors. Do you think Obama would stand in the way of something Goldman Sachs (#3 donor) wanted? I don't.