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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (390875)	4/12/2003 4:06:47 PM
From: Cogito	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

>>Of course it's a stupid bill, If a company derived income from it effort's in foreign countries I don't see why the people of the US have any rational or ethical claim on that money. Yes a law can be passed that has no basis in ethics or reason, but that does not make it right. It just makes it the law.<< Thomas - The examples you used, of a foreign company with a single U.S. employee or "if they transit America and never stop on a business trip" are ludicrous. Do try to keep up. Is Stanley Works, a maker of tools with HQ and manufacturing facilities in Connecticut, a foreign company? How about Ingersoll-Rand, with world HQ and factories in New Jersey? If an individual makes money from foreign sources while residing in the U.S., that individual is required to pay federal taxes on that income. The current U.S. tax code requires that U.S. companies pay taxes on the portion of their income from foreign sources that is "repatriated" to this country. That's the law, but these companies have found a loophole to get around it. We're talking about American companies that open an "office" in Bermuda, Montserrat, the Caymans, or someone like that, and then reincorporate as foreign corporations. They do this for the express purpose of avoiding paying taxes. Lest you think that's it's only radical socialists who have a problem with this growing trend, here's what Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, had to say on the topic last year. "There is no business reason for doing this, other than to escape U.S. taxation. I believe the Finance Committee needs to investigate this activity." Your mention of the tax code brings up a good point. The U.S. tax code is bloated, byzantine and bizarre. I don't see why our tax laws should take up more than a dozen pages, let alone the thousands of pages they currently fill. - Allen