Corporate taxes

It is well known in business circles that the US has the highest corporate tax rate at 35% of all the industrialized countries. While this fact has been brought to the attention of the politicians in Washington nothing was done to lower the rate. The most notable aspect of this is that US companies are holding over 2 trillion dollars overseas not wanting to bring it home where it would be taxed. More recently there has developed a trend of US companies locating their home offices overseas to escape the high taxes. About ten years ago congress changed some laws to make this move out of the country more difficult but in the last few years companies have found ways to move and save money on taxes. The most common is to purchase a company overseas and move the corporation to that country while retaining most of its US operations. These are large companies and one recent example is a local Minneapolis company called Medtronic. FRIDLEY, Minn. (KMSP) - Medtronic will move its headquarters from Minnesota to Ireland as part of a $42.9 billion purchase of medical technology company Covidien. The merged company’s “operational” headquarters will stay in Fridley, Minn., along with the CEO’s office, but the legal headquarters will be in Ireland. The move to Ireland will save the company billions in taxes. The corporate taxrate in Ireland is just 12.5 percent compared to the 35 percent rate in the U.S This has resulted in lost jobs for American workers. The companies cut their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million during the 2000s while increasing employment overseas by 2.4 million, new data from the U.S. Commerce Department show.