Guest post by Brian Rogers
Today President Obama praised new Treasury Department rules against so-called corporate “tax inversions,” transactions that lower businesses’ corporate tax rate, targeting what he called the “most insidious tax loopholes out there.”
Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton’s campaign said that she would go even further than President Obama and impose an “exit tax” on any company trying to leave the U.S. to lower its tax bill. As The Wall Street Journal reported today, the new Treasury regulations are reportedly aimed at Pfizer Inc.’s planned merger with Allergan PLC, “which has drawn fire from politicians in an election year.”
And not surprisingly, that’s where the hypocrisy begins. Because while Clinton has singled-out Pfizer for attack as a corporate bogeyman, she had no problem accepting millions of dollars from the drug company to her campaign coffers and the Clinton Foundation:
“However, Pfizer has donated heavily to the Clinton Foundation, giving between $1 million and $5 million to the charity, according to donor records. Contributions to the Clinton Foundation are tax deductible. Pfizer executives donated $39,375 directly to Clinton’s presidential campaign between April and the end of September, according to Federal Election Commission records. What’s more, one of Pfizer’s top lobbying firms, Akin Gump, is one of Clinton’s top 10 campaign donors, the Center for Responsive Politics found.”
Further, Clinton and her allies have falsely attacked Pfizer saying they would “leave U.S. taxpayers holding the bag” and wouldn’t be paying its share of taxes:
“The company would still be run from the United States, enjoying all the benefits of being based in America – such as our taxpayer-supported roads, public colleges, and patent protections – without paying its part to support them.”
In reality, the drug maker would be paying its share of taxes as Cato Economist Dan Mitchell points out:
“There’s a remarkable level of inaccuracy in that short excerpt. Pfizer wouldn’t be claiming to be an Irish company. It would be an Irish company. And it would still pay tax to the IRS on all U.S.-source income. … The extra layer of tax on foreign-source income only applies if the money comes back to the United States. Pfizer won’t ‘walk out’ on a tax liability. Everything the company is doing is fully compliant with tax laws and IRS rules.”
So once again in her leftward lurch to address the appeal of avowed socialist Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary, Clinton distorts the facts and ignores the money trail of hypocrisy that characterizes so much of her record.
Crossposted from America Rising Squared
