Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D - Mont.) has expressed dismay at the findings of a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which show that US multinational companies are increasingly reporting income offshore to cut their tax bills.
The GAO report, published on Monday, found that the number of foreign operations of US companies is increasing, with the largest companies paying the lowest effective tax rates, and more income being reported in lower tax rate jurisdictions outside the US.
However, what has provoked the ire of Baucus and his Republican counterpart on the committee, Chuck Grassley, is the report's conclusion that businesses may be manipulating existing tax laws by shifting corporate income and tax planning to foreign tax rate jurisdictions in which they operate.
“I’ve said before that we will tackle tax reform in 2009 and this report underscores the need to review business taxes as part of our tax reform efforts in the next Congress,” said Baucus
“Simply put, I do not intend to allow US multinationals to sidestep their fair share of taxes by moving income offshore. Rather, they should do their patriotic duty and start to bring their income onshore, along with as many jobs as possible for American workers. This GAO report will help the Finance Committee develop a better understanding of how the tax code works today for US multinational businesses, as we determine how changes could affect our country’s global competitiveness and economic security."
Grassley added: "The Finance Committee has always been vigilant on transfer pricing issues. It’s a complicated area of tax policy theory and practice, especially if intangible assets are involved. We’ll continue to work toward a system that’s less burdensome on taxpayers and tax administrators but assures that shared business activities are properly accounted for in how US-based taxable income is determined."
The GAO, which based its report on an analysis of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data on corporate taxpayers, found that the average US effective tax rate on the domestic income of large corporations with positive domestic income in 2004 was an estimated 25.2%, although there was considerable variation in tax rates across these taxpayers. The average US effective tax rate on the foreign-source income of these large corporations was around 4%, reflecting the effects of both the foreign tax credit and tax deferral on this type of income.
Effective tax rates on the foreign operations of US MNCs vary considerably by country, according to the report. Estimates for 2004 show that Bermuda, Ireland, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Caribbean Islands, and China had relatively low rates among countries that hosted significant shares of US business activity, while Italy, Japan, Germany, Brazil, and Mexico had relatively high rates.
US business activity (measured by sales, value added, employment, compensation, physical assets, and net income) increased in absolute terms both domestically and abroad from 1989 through 2004, but the relative share of activity that was based in foreign affiliates increased. Nevertheless, as of 2004, over 60% of the activity (by all six measures) of US MNCs remained located in the United States. The UK, Canada, and Germany are the leading foreign locations of US businesses by all measures except income.
However, the GAO concluded that the reporting of the geographic sources of income "is susceptible to manipulation for tax planning purposes" and appears to be influenced by differences in tax rates across countries.
"Most of the countries studied with relatively low effective tax rates have income shares significantly larger than their shares of the business measures least likely to be affected by income shifting practices: physical assets, compensation, and employment. The opposite relationship holds for most of the high tax countries studied," the GAO stated.
Baucus stated that he intends to work with Committee members to plan roundtables and additional hearings in preparation of "full-fledged" tax reform in the next Congress.
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