foreign taxes

U.S. Multinational Corporations pay more taxes to foreign nations than the United States

A new Standards & Poors report (pdf) gives a terrible tale to tell on U.S. corporations moving offshore.

S&P's bullet point findings:

  1. In 2008 S&P 500 foreign sales increased 8.5%,
    while domestic sales decreased 0.3%
    .
  2. European sales represented 27.7% of foreign sales,
    with 9.3% coming from Canada. Asian sales decreased to 13.2% from 16.8% in 2007.
  3. It’s not just jobs exported - more income taxes were paid abroad than were paid to the U.S. government.
  4. Foreign income taxes increased US $11.5 billion or 9.3%, as U.S. federal income taxes declined US $43.9 billion, or 29.1%.
  5. Half of the issues still do not report sufficient
    information for a complete breakdown – big on pictures, short on tabular tables.
  6. Of the reporting issues, 47.9% of all sales were
    produced and sold outside of the United States, up from 45.8% in 2007 and 43.6% in 2006
    .