44°
To the editor:
It is time to change the U.S. Corporate Tax Structure. Recently, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals announced that they will move to Ireland. Pfizer will merge with Allergan, a small drug company from Dublin. This merger will allow Pfizer to move its executive offices to Ireland, thus allowing them to lower their tax rate.
Pfizer says that this move will result in a $2 billion cost savings per year, for the first three years. The move will also give them a 17 to 18 percent tax rate. They currently pay the United States tax rate of approximately 25 percent.
You might say that this is unpatriotic and should not be done. I say it is the fiscal responsibility of the president and the board of directors to take care of the shareholders to maximize the profits for the company. If, as a nation, we don’t restructure the corporate tax rate this will continue to happen.
The United States currently has the highest corporate tax rate of the 34 developed, free market nations that make up the Organization for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD). The marginal corporate tax rate in the US is 35percent on the federal level and 39.5 percent once state taxes are accounted for, according to the 2013 OECD tax database.
The global average is much lower, at 25 percent. Ireland has the lowest overall rate at 12.5 percent. This puts the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage verses lower taxed nations. The records show that democrats and republicans, over the last several years have done nothing to correct this problem. The people expect a new era in government. They want their government to lower taxes and understand the realities they face. Solutions, not the pursuit of partisan policies, matter now.
The federal government cannot ignore the burdens that high corporate taxes have on corporations. The federal government has a unique opportunity to make a real change in the right direction.
If you believe, like I do, that something has to be done, please contact your congressperson and your US senators and tell them you want real change in the corporate tax structure, so we can bring commonsense back into government.
Bill Gouldman, Putnam County Legislator
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