Choice...tax $1 Trillion Dollars a little or not at all.....go for a little!

As a coalition led by Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG), and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) presses for a tax holiday on more than $1 trillion in offshore profits, it is turning to a well-positioned lobbyist: Jeffrey Forbes, once chief of staff to Max Baucus, chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee.


Data compiled by Bloomberg News show that Forbes is part of an army of more than 160 lobbyists, including at least 60 who once worked for a sitting member of the House or Senate, pushing for the repatriation holiday. Their job is to persuade Congress to establish a tax break estimated to cost the U.S. government $78.7 billion over the next decade.

Independent studies have found that the last time this tax break was tried, in 2004, the bargain rate for bringing home offshore profits did little to spur hiring or domestic investment. Most of the money was used to buy back stock. (Simple solution: tie the tax break to a certain level of hiring for the benefiting company.)

In all, three former staffers of Baucus, the Finance Committee’s chairman since 2007, are lobbying on the repatriation holiday. Besides Forbes, there’s Nick Giordano of Washington Council Ernst & Young, a longtime Cisco lobbyist. Microsoft has retained Timothy E. Punke, a former adviser to Baucus on trade issues who is active in Democratic politics.

The WIN America campaign’s manager is Karen Olick, former chief of staff to Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat. One of the spokesmen for the group is Doug Thornell, who most recently was a staffer for Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who is a member of the House leadership. Like Anita Dunn, Thornell and Olick aren’t registered lobbyists.

“Our economy needs all the help it can get, and leaving this money in foreign banks when we could bring it home now makes no sense,” Thornell said.

UAE: Rape someone leave your business card....

“In the UAE rape is not a crime unless it is witnessed by four adult male Muslim witnesses. Alicia wasn't told this. She certainly wasn't told that if she reported the brutal rape to the police that she ran the risk of being jailed for 12 months.”


A Brisbane woman jailed for adultery in Dubai after she complained of being drugged and raped by four co-workers .

Alicia Gali's lawyer Michelle James, a principal at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, said Australian embassy staff failed to warn the 29-year-old that a complaint of rape in the United Arab Emirates could lead to her being jailed.

Ms Gali was charged with adultery and sentenced to 11 months in prison, serving eight, after bringing the incident to the attention of the UAE police


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/she-wasnt-warned-rape-victim-to-sue-government-20110607-1fqcz.html#ixzz1XWju4tAB

E.T. bring the greenback home!! (ET = extra territorial in this case)

Corporations with as much as $1 trillion in profits parked overseas should be allowed to bring that money to the U.S. without spending the repatriated funds on job creation or paying taxes (possibly taxes at a reduced rate). Is being debated around Congress.
In 2004, Congress passed legislation allowing U.S.-based companies to repatriate overseas profits at a 5.25 percent tax rate instead of the 35 percent statutory corporate rate. Most of the funds went to buy back shares v creating jobs.

I personally don’t think we’re short of cash – just ideas. This being said bringing more cash into a system is generally good and a Trillion should not be overlooked.

Under U.S. tax law, multinational corporations owe taxes on income they earn from active business operations around the world. They can defer U.S. taxes on money earned outside the U.S. until they bring it home.

“As you know,” Bernanke said, “I’ve suggested looking at the corporate tax code, and one aspect of it is the territoriality provision. If you were to allow firms to bring back cash, you know, from abroad without additional taxation or limited additional taxation, there might be more incentive for them to bring it home and use it domestically.”

The trading play…companies with large cash balances that could lead to share buy-backs:

Google, Washington Post, Humana, WellPoint, ADOBE, Qualcomm, Pfizer, Priceline, Apple, MasterCard, Intuitive Surgical, Motorola, CISCO, CA Technologies, Microsoft, Amgen, Duke Energy, & pretty much any USA multination corporation.