Our Patriotic Duty

Like most of you, I'm not too keen on having my (payroll) taxes raised, and still believe it's a tactical mistake that Team Democrat will pay for in the coming election cycle. To be fair, however, we need to acknowledge our obligations as citizens to keep the government functioning, as well as the need to contribute our fair share because, you know, everyone's got to have some skin in the game:

Companies have long been allowed to defer U.S. taxes on most money earned by their overseas subsidiaries, but financial activities have traditionally been left out of this exemption because such transactions are too easy to shift offshore, according to Wamhoff and other experts.

But the business lobby gained an exception in 1997 for "active financing," which includes some kinds of insurance and banking income as well as income from financing the sale of products overseas. A heavy-equipment manufacturer, for example, can use a foreign subsidiary to finance the sale of its machines to an overseas customer, and does not have to pay any U.S. corporate income tax on that transaction.

(Via.)

---Baron V