Obama: US companies that become "magically Irish" for short term gain are unpatriotic

Kermit.de.frog

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/obama-names-ireland-in-attack-on-tax-policies-of-us-firms-1.1877474


Does he include US presidents in his broadside? "magically Irish", "short term gain" etc...

A Dub in Glasgo

Unless they are a company

The Moldy Gowl

He lied to us, he dosent even like us.

whiskeyman

I think he's on to us

Celly Smunt

I bet he's not even irish

Celly Smunt

I bet he's not even irish

Harry Palmr

What about US presidents who become "magically Irish" for short term gain?

smellmepower

Our fault for lying down and letting these big multinationals piss all over us.

DrumSteve

smellmepower wrote: »

Our fault for lying down and letting these big multinationals piss all over us.

Our fault?

They bring jobs and (some) money here.

Obama can swivel.

893bet

Harry Palmr wrote: »

What about US presidents who become "magically Irish" for short term gain?

Yes well spotted but the OP already said that in his.......OP

hardCopy

Ní féidir libh!

Harry Palmr

893bet wrote: »

Yes well spotted but the OP already said that in his.......OP

I never read the op just the thread title!

Kichote

Celly Smunt wrote: »

I bet he's not even irish

Of course he's Irish. Barack of the Ancient Clan of Bama, Freeman on the land.

Dublinflyer

Well if he was the type of president that actually got things done and not just talk a lot he could have stopped it a long time ago if he really wanted to. US companies have complained to his administration for years the the US corporate tax rate it too high so of course they are going to avoid paying tax, let's face it we would all do it if we could.

SEPT 23 1989

Him and his mate Geithner are no friends of Ireland anyone who stood cheering him at College Green is a moron

minotour

i dont read it as a stab at us, its more directed at the US companies who avail of our "services". I cant imagine anything will come of it.

Daith

Jaysus we say the same thing about U2 and others paying tax in Holland.

Honestly we just got Obama Plaza in Moneygall. We can't destroy it now.

wretcheddomain

Obama hasn't said anything controversial here - he's simply saying it's legally unpatriotic to headquarter your business in a low tax rate environment overseas. The only reason it's all over the popular news here is that the word "Ireland" was used. If he simply mentioned "low corporation tax countries", we'd be none the wiser of the speech and this pointless thread wouldn't have been erected.

jimgoose

Democrat President-Of-Color rants about Big Evil Multinationals not paying enough tax. Film at 11.

You'd never have heard George H.W. Bush going on with this kind of pinko malarkey.

c_man

Obama and his cheerleaders here in Ireland, can go and sh!te.

Cuddlesworth

minotour wrote: »

i dont read it as a stab at us, its more directed at the US companies who avail of our "services".

That has zero effect on how they operate within America. none of them are American company's anyway.

Use Google as a example. Google America and Google Europe both pay money into Google Caymen Islands as Royalties which then gets used as share dividends. In reality Google pays sweet f all taxes in both tax regions because its allowed funnel profits off as brand payments to a near completely tax free region.

LincolnsBeard

He's right lol.

The One Doctor

The writing's on the wall for US firms in Ireland.

jackofalltrades

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Him and his mate Geithner are no friends of Ireland anyone who stood cheering him at College Green is a moron

When he said "is feidir linn" in his speech, what he really meant was "yes you can, pay back the bondholders every single penny that you owe".

Good to see that our tax system is annoying him.

Iwasfrozen

The One Doctor wrote: »

The writing's on the wall for US firms in Ireland.

You think so? I don't Obama's been pratteling on about this issue for years. He'll still be pratteling about it in three years when he's leaving office because despite the hype Obama is not the type of President who will rattle the bird cage.

Stone Deaf 4evr

The One Doctor wrote: »

The writing's on the wall for US firms in Ireland.

not a hope, who do you think really controls who gets elected? whoever bankrolls the candidates, aka multinationals who benefit from taking advantage of the loophole.

LostBoy101

Anything that pisses off the Americans is good on my books.

bear1

Why don't they just lower their own corp.tax and shut the fcuk up?

smellmepower

DrumSteve wrote: »

Our fault?

They bring jobs and (some) money here.

Obama can swivel.

Yeah,and when they find a country run and inhabited by even simpler rubes they'll piss of there and take their token jobs and amount of tax they pay with them, and leave us swinging in the wind waiting for the next multinational to take advantage.

HurtLocker

The One Doctor wrote: »

The writing's on the wall for US firms in Ireland.

Yah withdraw finiancial support from the next clown who runs and wants to dictate how and where private enterprises do business.

Obama spent $15 per vote received in the last election. I doubt he merely remortgaged the house. Thats over 1 billion dollars

$775 million spent by Obama's campaign committee
$286 million spent by the Democratic Party
$75 million spent by the Priorities USA Action super PAC

Wasting so much money to win a democratic election is a joke. Was it patriotic? Im sure their founding fathers envisaged the need to have access to and use $1 billion to win the election for president

Lou.m

I think there is a boards glitch numerous posts are coming out twice on diff threads.

Kensington

It's populist lip service and playing the patriotism card.

His popularity Stateside, or the popularity of his government in general, is not exactly riding high at the moment, unlike the nation's debt pile.

Plazaman

He wasn't saying that when he was swallying that pint of Guinness with Henry of Moneygall.

Still as long as he doesn't decide to open a can of FREEDOM on us, we'll get away with it.

Mr. G

He just wants votes, nothing more in my opinion.

It doesn't help the relationship between the Irish and US Government, especially since the US should be treating us with respect, as we do. They just annoy me now.

Mr. G

Lou.m wrote: »

I think there is a boards glitch numerous posts are coming out twice on diff threads.

I think it's the unofficial Boards app which is submitting posts twice.

ABC101

Very interesting article in the Independent today...26th July 2014 by Daniel McConnell.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/revealed-2bn-cost-of-taxrate-clampdown-30461248.html

OECD is drafting up new rules.... what little Corp tax Ireland does obtain could be reduced by 50%,,,i.e. 4 bln down to 2 bln.

It also mentions serious risks to attracting further direct foreign investment (DFI), PRSI, Jobs etc etc..

And interestingly enough... the report also mentions.... that the Irish have shot themselves in the foot.

International media picked up on articles written by Irish persons about the situation. Sinn Fein have been mentioned as well, complaining about certain wording in the report.

In my own opinion... the future looks very uncertain for DFI and the few large multinationals which are here.

Irish politicians / media commentators need to understand that there are other countries who would love to see various companies relocate from Ireland and bring jobs to their own people.

If Corp tax take does drop..... the Irish public will have to cough up a lot more in personal income tax / levies / LPT et cetra to balance the countries books.

Grayson

ABC101 wrote: »

Very interesting article in the Independent today...26th July 2014 by Daniel McConnell.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/revealed-2bn-cost-of-taxrate-clampdown-30461248.html

OECD is drafting up new rules.... what little Corp tax Ireland does obtain could be reduced by 50%,,,i.e. 4 bln down to 2 bln.

It also mentions serious risks to attracting further direct foreign investment (DFI), PRSI, Jobs etc etc..

And interestingly enough... the report also mentions.... that the Irish have shot themselves in the foot.

International media picked up on articles written by Irish persons about the situation. Sinn Fein have been mentioned as well, complaining about certain wording in the report.

In my own opinion... the future looks very uncertain for DFI and the few large multinationals which are here.

Irish politicians / media commentators need to understand that there are other countries who would love to see various companies relocate from Ireland and bring jobs to their own people.

If Corp tax take does drop..... the Irish public will have to cough up a lot more in personal income tax / levies / LPT et cetra to balance the countries books.

To be fair we take in feck all in corporate tax especially considering the amount of money that flows through ireland. The benefits are the masses of high tech jobs that are generated.

Warper

Who care what the Zionist protector Obama says

UCDVet

Plazaman wrote: »

He wasn't saying that when he was swallying that pint of Guinness with Henry of Moneygall.

Still as long as he doesn't decide to open a can of FREEDOM on us, we'll get away with it.

Apples and Oranges.

Claiming/acknowledging/celebrating an Irish heritage is nothing like moving your company's headquarters to Ireland to gain more favourable corporate tax rates - so that you can avoid paying taxes to the US government despite the vast majority of work being done in the US.

Also, I seem to remember reading in the paper about lots of multinational corporations who take in millions but manage not to pay any tax (or very little tax) in Ireland thanks to creative bookkeeping. I don't remember an outcry of people supporting companies that find creative loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Maybe I'm just remembering wrong in my old age.

The originally US, now multinational financial services company I work for has staffed offices in three countries. But they have over 12 different legal entities/businesses registered all over the world. All for tax purposes. They have a team of international tax experts who work full-time evaluating the current laws and looking for ways to shuffle things around. On many occasions, due to a change in some law, somewhere, we've shut down, reopened, transferred, or otherwise 'gamed' the system to pay less taxes. We also do creative juggling of profits, company A pays company B for something that costs nothing for B to share with A. We do this all the time, because we are really just one company.

Imagine if your house was a company. And any profit your 'living room' has gets taxed at 20% but any profit in the kitchen gets taxed at 10%. Well, if the living room is up 200 euro - you pay yourself 200 euro for a bag of crisps. Now the living room has no profit and the kitchen has 200 euro. And you pay 1/2 the tax.

Very little to do with nationality or pride or anything else. It's just money. The people who get the 1/2 tax are happy because they get some money they wouldn't have and often some jobs. Ireland benefits from US companies dodging taxes. The US doesn't. So, the president of the US is against the practice. In exactly the same way the Irish government gets upset when companies operating in Ireland pull the same nonsense.

conorh91

I thought Richard Bruton's reaction was pretty amusing in "welcoming" any US crackdown on inversion.

Clearly, any impediment or disincentive to US firms locating here is a bad outcome for Ireland. During all the economic crash, it was out corporate tax regime that stayed constant whilst elsehwere taxation changed dramatically. This is not a coincidence, or mischance. It is deliberate. We benefit.

Either Richard Bruton is an idiot, or he thinks we are.

MR.Offensive69

Honestly he can go fuk himself, he pretends to have Irish roots when it suits him. If he is short of the aul cash maybe he should stop spending trillions on their military and stop giving billions every year to the Israeli terrorist.

ABC101

Grayson wrote: »

To be fair we take in feck all in corporate tax especially considering the amount of money that flows through ireland. The benefits are the masses of high tech jobs that are generated.

Granted WRT corporation profits, the tax paid (4 bln) is very small.

However WRT to Irish finances, 4 bln is a lot.

If this drops to 2 Bln... then the shortfall will have to be made up somewhere else..... cue more cuts / higher taxes for the public.

And yes if mulitnationals pull out... the knock on effects to the Irish economy will be severe i.e. PRSI, unemployment benefit, trickle down effect etc etc

ABC101

Warper wrote: »

Who care what the Zionist protector Obama says

In fairness.... the US has been a long term supporter of Israel long before Obama.

Whilst there have been occasions where a US president has been reluctant to send arm shipments to Israel i.e. Nixon, Ford.... the pressure from congress / US senate / pentagon and US media means a US president has little choice but to toe the line.

The Israeli lobby in the US is powerful / influential & controls sections of the media etc. Their networking skills are second to none, loyalty to their home country is impressive as well.

EazyD

ABC101 wrote: »

In fairness.... the US has been a long term supporter of Israel long before Obama.

Whilst there have been occasions where a US president has been reluctant to send arm shipments to Israel i.e. Nixon, Ford.... the pressure from congress / US senate / pentagon and US media means a US president has little choice but to toe the line.

The Israeli lobby in the US is powerful / influential & controls sections of the media etc. Their networking skills are second to none, loyalty to their home country is impressive as well.

It's hardly surprising given who controls's the majority of U.S media: (all Jewish American's)

Gerald Levin, CEO and Director of AOL Time Warner

Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company

Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Chairman of Seagram Company Ltd

Edgar Bronfman, Jr, President and CEO of Seagram Company Ltd and head of Universal Studios

Sumner Redstone, Chairman and CEO of Viacom, Inc

Dennis Dammerman, Vice Chairman of General Electric

Peter Chernin, President and Co-COO of News Corporation Limited