The Washington Post recently reported that some of the companies Mitt Romney's firm Bain Capital invested in were "pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories." Even more troubling than his business record is his platform as Republican presidential candidate, which includes a policy that would encourage and further accelerate the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries.
The former Massachusetts governor would make U.S. corporations' overseas profits exempt from U.S. taxes. These profits are already treated favorably under the tax code compared to corporate profits that are earned and reported domestically, creating an inefficient bias toward investment offshore. The favorable treatment of profits that are reported offshore also creates rewards for corporations that shift profits (on paper) out of the United States to foreign countries, including tax havens such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
Romney's proposed exemption for foreign profits would exacerbate the worst features of our current tax system. It would:
- Enhance the tax code's rewards for moving jobs and investments overseas
- Provide a gratuitous windfall to some of the very companies that have already shifted jobs and profits overseas
- Further invite the offshore tax haven abuse that deprives the U.S. Treasury of tens of billions of dollars in revenue every year
Read more at Center for American Progress Action Fund
