Financial Execs Oppose Changing Tax Deferral Laws

An influential group of financial executives is urging Congress to oppose the Obama administration’s proposals for reforming the corporate tax system, especially the rules used by multinational companies to defer paying taxes on foreign earnings.

Financial Executives International’s Committee on Taxation released a statement criticizing the proposals in the Treasury Department’s recently released “greenbook” aimed at cracking down on loopholes used by companies to shift earnings to foreign tax havens (see Obama Proposes Billions in Tax Cuts and Tax Hikes).

“FEI’s Committee on Taxation strongly believes that President Obama’s tax proposals, as currently outlined in the context of high U.S. corporate tax rates, would be detrimental to U.S. companies’ global competitiveness,” said the statement. “It is clear that U.S. companies grow domestically and U.S. jobs and wages increase when U.S. companies succeed internationally. U.S. companies need a level playing field to succeed in international markets, and from the standpoint of multinational corporations, a fair and balanced Tax Code must strengthen U.S. economic growth, increase U.S. job opportunities, and improve the competitiveness of U.S.-based companies in both U.S. and international markets. This committee of financial executives cannot support policies, such as deferral 'reform' that would make American companies less competitive in the world.

“We encourage Congress to avoid taking any steps that would hurt the ability of U.S. companies to compete globally, and strongly recommend that any major tax policy changes be addressed in the context of a broader tax reform effort, in which a significant corporate tax rate reduction is considered concurrently,” the statement continued. “We would welcome a dialogue with the current administration or congressional leaders to discuss ideas for tax reform that will benefit all companies and the U.S. economy.”

The group claims that many of the president’s budget proposals would affect both private and publicly held companies and would create hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases on U.S. businesses.

“Changing the current deferral policy for U.S.-based companies would fundamentally change global companies and how they can compete abroad, “ said the group, as it urged all financial executives “to initiate or maintain a dialogue on the critical issues with their elected representatives.”

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