Halliburton Co.'s decision to relocate its chief executive and corporate headquarters to Dubai has scratched one of Congress' most sensitive sore spots -- suspicion that U.S. corporations are restructuring their operations to shirk domestic taxes.
Halliburton Dubai move revives foreign tax controversy - MarketWatch
Haliburton's motives are almost always suspicious, but this is an indication of a problem. I agree that they are making a tax play, but more importantly, they could be just the first.
One of the great things about tech is that it is possible to work just about from anywhere, but that is also one of the reasons it is highly susceptible to worker relocation. I'm afraid that with all of the free-flying free-trade agreements that have happened, it is possible to locate your business just about anywhere and reach just about any market. While this is a great thing, and it opens up plenty of great opportunities for domestic business, they should want to keep their businesses here.
The government can help with this by running trimmer and keeping corporate taxes low, including payroll tax. It is easy for congress to say, "lets shake down business for the extra money we need." But that is a problem in that they can just split. All they would do is reduce the number of jobs available in America, and long-term they would break our economy.
It is a tough problem, and I understand that corporations must pay taxes, but at the same time America has to remain a fertile place for businesses to grow. Corporation bashing isn't going to get us anywhere, and we need to act soon before silicon valley is located somewhere in India or Saudi Arabia.
technorati tags:politics, business, taxes
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