Business Leaders Unhappy with Obama Tax Plan

Business leaders across the country are reacting strongly to a proposal by the Obama administration to increase taxes on U.S. companies that derive profits from foreign subsidiaries, saying the proposal will drive U.S. jobs overseas by making the American business climate uncompetitive.

“The Obama administration now wants to change the international tax rules in a way that will give foreign competitors an unfair advantage over U.S. companies in the global marketplace, allowing the foreign companies to reinvest more, expand faster, and sell products at lower prices,” writes John Castellani, President of the Business Roundtable in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “The administration claims it is protecting Americans against companies that export jobs; in reality, the proposal would put the U.S. increasingly out of sync with the rest of the world.”

The Obama proposal, which has not yet been drafted into a bill on Capitol Hill, would make it more difficult for U.S. companies to claim credits for the foreign taxes they pay and would limit how much they can defer tax payments on their foreign earnings.

Castellani isn’t alone. His organization represents the top CEOs of the nation’s companies, which in turn represent over 10 million employees.

Last month Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Obama’s proposal would “make U.S. jobs more expensive. We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”

The federal government is scrambling for money as the U.S. federal budget deficit hit $1 trillion for the first time in history.