Walgreens, one of the largest pharmacy chains in the country, has threatened to move its corporate headquarters from the United States to Switzerland in order to evade U.S. corporate income taxes.
This has set off a major political firestorm, and it should. I think it's downright unpatriotic for a U.S.-based company to move their corporate headquarters, which often consists of nothing more than a mailbox and a filing cabinet, to a foreign country, for the sole purpose of tax evasion. Furthermore, corporate tax evasion is depriving federal, state, and local governments of revenue that could be used to, among other things, fix crumbling roads and bridges, fund public education, and reduce or eliminate budget deficits.
I believe that corporations based in foreign countries, but do business with the United States, should be legally required to pay federal corporate income taxes, in addition to any corporate income taxes they are legally required to pay in the countries where they are headquartered. Not only would this put an end to corporate income tax invasion in the U.S., it would also put the reins on the rampant economic globalization that is hurting our economy and costing us thousands upon thousands of jobs.
Corporate tax evasion is one of the more serious problems our country faces.
