Robert Reich: The New Way Big Corporations Like Walgreen Are Shamelessly Dodging Their Taxes

[joeglow3]

2. As a tax CPA, I wish there more details. LOTS of questions in this article

How did the GAO come up with their numbers? Did they look at current taxes only? If so, did they divide that into GAAP income? A LOT of studies/articles do at that is a flat out lie to deceive the reader who is ignorant of tax law/GAAP accounting.

Did the GAO consider deferred taxes? If so, that is really one issue - bonus depreciation. Which is currently expired? If it considers intangibles (primarily goodwill, which leads to a large deferred liability due to annual impairment testing for GAAP), that is being dishonest.

Does Walgreens currently repatriate its foreign earnings? The article doesn't cite the fact that the US is essentially the only first world nation that taxes worldwide profit. When no other nation does this, are we not basically telling companies to headquarter in any other world but the US? Sorry, but we are last at the table with this antiquated law in a global economy.

This appears to be a sloppy article. All that said, I agree we just drop the tax rate and get rid of all credits/deductions. Of course NEITHER party would agree to that, as that is how they pick winners and losers (and line their pockets).