The Globalization Tax: What it is, and Why I support it

Walgreens, a pharmacy chain that has been headquartered in my home state of Illinois since its founding, has threatened to move its corporate headquarters from the United States to Switzerland in order to evade U.S. corporate taxes.

While Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has proposed legislation to discourage these so-called "inversions", in which U.S. companies merge with foreign companies and then set up their new headquarters overseas, I'm going to go even further than Durbin's proposal, which, if enacted, would prohibit companies that undergo inversions from accepting federal contracts, and propose enacting a globalization tax, which would require companies that conduct any business in the United States to pay U.S. corporate taxes, regardless of which country their headquarters is located.

While the globalization tax wouldn't completely do away with economic globalization, it would certainly put the reins on the economic globalization that is hurting our country's economy and costing our country millions upon millions of dollars in tax revenue. While Senator Durbin's proposal is certainly a step in the right direction, we can certainly do more to discourage companies that do business in our country from moving overseas to avoid paying corporate taxes here.

Foreign corporations who do business with the U.S. should pay U.S. corporate taxes

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.