2018 foreign profit repatriation is a $592Bn taxpayer ripoff | Hacker News Reader

2018 foreign profit repatriation is a $592Bn taxpayer ripoff

cringely.com

6 pointssjcsjc8 comments

Still better than the previous situation where they would (and did for years) have paid $0 for that money.

So, the current scheme might be a ripoff (of course it is, most laws are passed to benefit corporatism) but the previous one was worse.

The previous one and the current one aren't the only 2 choices.

A third one would be to pass a law saying US companies and US subsidiaries need to repatriate 80% of foreign cash at 35% else the executives will be jailed. Guess how much cash will come back and at what rate.

Ever seen such amazing tax breaks for the poor?

If you want to go down that path just tax based on the reported profit.

That would be a great way to make the US totally uninviting to capital, and cause trillions of dollars worth of capital flight. It would also be deeply unethical, but that's just my opinion.

> A third one would be to pass a law saying US companies and US subsidiaries need to repatriate 80% of foreign cash at 35% else the executives will be jailed.

Whereupon the executives, and the money, and the company, decamp from the US permanently.

> Guess how much cash will come back and at what rate.

My guess? Zero. My guess for the number of companies that would leave the United States altogether? 100%.

Most of the poor pay 0% tax. A company is mostly just a collection of assets, and many of them can move their operations from one country to another if they're motivated to do so, you can't just say "this company belongs to the US federal government". If you want capital to permanently leave the US, then start jailing executives anytime they structure a multinational company. If you'd like them to structure their companies in a way that benefits the US, then implement an internationally competitive tax structure.

>you can't just say "this company belongs to the US federal government".

Actually you can, it's called nationalization, and has been used many times in the past.

That said, you could just force their hand. Sure, they can "permanently leave the US", but if they value it as a market, you can hurt them with that (e.g. taxes on their stuff when they try to import it back).

No, the inflation this will cause domestically is going to disrupt the government even more than currently. There is a cost to maintain the infrastructure that allows commerce, and that is not going to get the appropriate funding to support this influx of cash.

Now up: consumers will be subsidizing the megacorps even more. Buy, or else.

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