You read about the Pfizer Allergan inversion facilitating gambit here first (that is if you are reading anything here, and if you’re not then . . . well, you don’t know what you’re missing, literally :-)).
I reported that the estimated tax revenue loss resulting from many of our larger corporations moving their legal address off shore will be about $20 billion over the next decade alone. With that incentive, you would think our representatives could come up with some kind of compromise to keep our biggest players from straying.
Now The WSJ has shown just how much Pfizer had at stake. Pfizer earns 60% of its profits overseas. It has let $144 billion in deferred foreign profits build up overseas because it would have had to pay an estimated $42 billion in taxes to bring those dollars back home, had it continued to maintain its home here. That’s nearly one quarter of the company’s value. While many accuse Pfizer of being unpatriotic, both sides of the aisle admit that something must be done to make things more fair and internationally competitive for the likes of Pfizer and their shareholders, but haven’t been able to come up with anything. What else is new? What actually do our leaders in D.C. do to pass the time of day and earn their keep?
If there’s a failure of patriotism here, the finger should be pointed not at Pfizer, but at our U.S. politicians for identifying their responsibility, and then completely failing to meet it.
As some of the airlines and network news shows like to put it: “Thanks for [flying with]/[listening to] us–we know you have choices.” How come our political representatives can’t seem to understand this, and to recognize that settling for half a loaf as numerous other jurisdictions are doing is a lot better than no loaf at all?
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