From the
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Don’t Tax Us
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The issue of currency repatriation is one that is a loaded one. My colleague Kenneth Corbin blogged on this yesterday, and it’s an important issue of how U.S. based companies can bring their earnings back into the U.S. without being double taxed.
From the corporate perspective, one of the most outspoken critics is Cisco CEO John Chambers. During Cisco’s second quarter fiscal 2011 earnings call, he took the opportunity to blast the U.S. tax system.
“We have a tax policy that is just broken. It’s at an unreasonable high rate, and then it’s the worst of all worlds,” Chambers said. “The majority of our growth, almost 70 percent of our market, and probably 90 percent of long-term growth is outside of the country and we have a policy that makes us non-competitive outside the country and then not only doesn’t encourage us to bring it back, but penalizes it with double taxation.”
It’s Chambers hope and expectation the both Republicans and Democrats understand the problem. He also expects that the issue will be resolved in a positive way.
Considering the current state of the U.S. economy, and the potential tax revenue windfall that the Treasury could yield — in my view this really is a no-brainer.