Disclosure of corporate tax liabilities by states has been the subject of debate for over a decade. But there is no real need to disclose confidential taxpayer information. It does not advance the tax policy debate and has not been definitively shown to improve state tax collections. Disclosing any of that information to the public does little more than provide the public with enough information to make uninformed accusations against certain corporations.
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Newspaper editorial pages rarely get tax policy right. Some, like The New York Times and Washington Post, are so driven by political agendas that they do not even pretend to understand the principles of sound tax policy. Unfortunately, smaller city newspapers all want to be The New York Times so they disregard tax policy as well. I was happy to the see the Des Moines Register is an exception.
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Does tax reform have to be bipartisan? Not necessarily. Decades ago, when Democrats held all the levers of power, they managed to push through some sweeping reforms without much help from their Republican colleagues. But in the modern era of divided government, tax reform is almost certainly going to be a bipartisan enterprise – or no enterprise at all.
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Except for the fact that I headed into the Deep South in June, I was lucky to get out of Washington last week. Few in Washington would dare express the views I heard from a good-sized group of young tax professionals. They were unencumbered by the constraints of political correctness and ideology that dominate inside the Beltway or by the long experience that erodes idealism. What I heard suggested that these young practitioners know where the problems are in the tax system and could offer solutions at which politicians would blanch.
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The inappropriate scrutiny of conservative groups’ applications for exempt status was the result of a rogue “conservative Republican” in Cincinnati who, for convenience, decided to focus on the names of organizations. That’s the narrative that Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings would like the media and public to focus on. It also seems to be the story that President Obama would like to see prevail. Unfortunately, testimony by Holly Paz, the former director of rulings and agreements for the IRS Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division, contradicts the notion that everything was confined to Cincinnati. Paz’s testimony is damaging to the IRS’s claim that there was no political bias, but neither does it support the GOP’s fears that the president or the White House was involved.
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A diverse group of 42 large U.S. multinationals has formed a new lobbying coalition. They want to lower rates. They want to bring their foreign profits home. And they are willing to pay the price.
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We already know something vital. The IRS is seriously and dangerously broken.
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The IRS executive who bungled the 501(c)(4) determinations unit scandal should resign -- or be fired today.
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There's a public opinion poll for just about everything these days. I recently stumbled across a U.K. poll on corporate taxes and morality. The results are fascinating.
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