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Today’s Wall Street Journal looks at a reality facing major U.S.-headquartered multinationals and our economy -- namely, the U.S. tax system is a barrier to new jobs and investments here at home. Given the significant attention Congress will give to tax reform, it’s important to give context to the Journal article. The article focused on the fact that many U.S.-based global companies keep a significant [...]
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In his Inaugural Address today, President Obama combined poetry and prose as he spoke about the priorities that he will bring to his second term in office. For many of these issues, the technology sector has put forward ideas with backing from both Democratic and Republican Members of Congress. The challenge consistently has been building broader support to move policies from good proposals to new [...]
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Living in the nation’s capital, it is easy to be caught up on the wonkiest aspects of the tax reform debate. Terms like “transfer pricing” and “tax deferral,” which would generate understandable looks of confusion from most people, are parts of the everyday lexicon for those of us making the case for tax reform. That said, even in a sea of policy complexity, the case for policy solutions can be quite [...]
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Sparky Anderson, who managed World Series-winning teams in Cincinnati and Detroit, once remarked, “We’re getting close to opening day. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.” January 3rd, 2013 marked American policymaking’s opening day: the start of the 113th Congress. We in the tech industry see the start of a new season of policymaking as a good thing because ours is an industry rooted [...]
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In what was certainly a tortured process, the Congress and the White House have completed work on legislation to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” and what economists predicted could have been a relapse into a national, if not global, recession. Importantly, this bill goes beyond recession avoidance and takes an important step toward stronger economic growth and job creation by renewing three key [...]
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The San Francisco Chronicle recently editorialized against replacing America’s antiquated tax system with a modern, competitive, market-based approach. The shift would place a premium on job creation and encourage companies to invest more of their foreign earnings here at home. In Wednesday’s edition, I respond to the editorial, underscoring the importance of this new approach not only to U.S. businesses [...]
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As I watched a bit of football the other day, it made me wish that we had a yellow flag for policy setting in this country. If that were possible, I would throw the flag at our policymakers for failing to fix an out-of-date, broken tax system and at our national media for their off-base characterizations of those simply trying to work within the system. Our tax code is atrocious. It is antiquated, [...]
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At ITI, we are always happy when our policy ideas are supported. That’s why we were pleased to see a recent article in the Economist that echoed many of our key suggestions for improving the U.S. economy. The piece is by two leaders of Harvard Business School’s United States Competitiveness Project and contains policy recommendations to get the economy on the right track in 2013. The article mirrors [...]
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At a time where we need bipartisan leadership that has a clear understanding of our country’s economic challenges, it is disheartening to see proposals that would create even more obstacles to economic recovery. Such was our feeling when we read the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) framework for tax reform. The framework contains outdated, discredited ideas, and policymakers would be wise to [...]
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Now that the dust has settled on a bruising election season, we at ITI would like to formally congratulate all the newly elected members of the Class of 2012. With tax reform a key priority for the continued growth of the tech sector and the revitalization of the U.S. economy, we are looking forward to working with these freshman members of the House and Senate, along with those re-elected and currently [...]
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