Press: 2016
The New York Times (December 29, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about American corporations’ propensity to avoid taxes by accumulating stateless income. “U.S. multinationals are the world leaders in tax avoidance strategies,” said Kleinbard. “In doing so, they create stateless income — income that has become unmoored from the countries to which it has an economic connection.”
KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk” (December 20, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard spoke about the European Union’s decision to force Apple to pay billions in back taxes allegedly owed by the company, despite a tax deal worked out with Ireland, and America’s tax policies.
American Public Media’s “Marketplace” (December 19, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about the European Union’s decision to force Apple to pay billions in back taxes allegedly owed by the company, despite a tax deal worked out with Ireland. “If you look at the actual facts, they are terrible facts against Apple”, said Kleinbard
Bloomberg (December 13, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard’s comments about the need for a corporate statutory tax rate between 25 and 28 percent were cited. “Materially lower rates exacerbate tax competition in ways that are unhealthy for smaller countries”, says Kleinbard.
The Wall Street Journal (December 9, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about why corporations might benefit from moving production to America.
The Washington Post (November 18, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about expectations for President-elect Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns. “I don’t see why his tax behavior as president will differ from his behavior as a private citizen, given the forgone conclusion that he won’t release his presidential income tax returns,” said Kleinbard.
The Washington Post (November 17, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the Republican party’s tax proposals and how only the GOP in the U.S. House of Representatives has a plan ready to go. “The House blueprint is the only thing that’s shovel-ready,” said Kleinbard.
Forbes (November 11, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on how he expects President-elect Donald Trump’s tax policies will benefit tech companies. The transition to a new international tax regime “will be congenial to tech companies,” said Kleinbard, adding that while it’s still too early to say how much influence Trump will have in shaping new tax rules, “the broad outlines are relatively clear.”
Boston Herald (November 10, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about future tax legislation developed by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and signed by President-elect Donald Trump. “The House in particular has done a great deal of preliminary work on what business tax reform might look like, and it’s possible that the House could push out a bill in the first 100 days,” Kleinbard said.
San Jose Mercury News (November 9, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the lack of enforcement mechanisms if corporations are required to repatriate funds stored outside the country. Imposing a requirement that firms invest repatriated cash into research or expansion is virtually impossible to enforce, because companies can simply return money to shareholders that they were planning on spending on research or expansion, said Kleinbard.
The New York Times (November 4, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about political consensus for closing corporate tax loopholes, but not on its execution. “Everyone agrees that something is going to be done about this,” said Kleinbard. “The question, of course, is exactly what.”
Los Angeles Times (November 4, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about how realization of capital gains is the only voluntary tax.
The Washington Post (November 1, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on how Donald Trump successfully avoided taxes through a practice that is no longer permitted. “The reason nobody thought of it is that nobody thought that it existed,” Kleinbard said. “The real surprise here is that he apparently got away with it.”
The Huffington Post (October 28, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the corporate tax practice of lowering global tax bills with the use of tax haven affiliates. While conceding there is not enough information about DP Lenticular to determine what is going on financially, “on its face it is consistent with the sort of aggressive tax planning that companies do to lower their global tax bills through diverting income to tax haven affiliates,” said Kleinbard.
The American Prospect (October 27, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard had research cited showing that Starbucks operates at a loss in the United Kingdom despite its popularity there.
Australian Financial Review (October 10, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on Trump’s use of debt forgiveness measures.
The Washington Post (October 9, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on the likelihood that Trump’s $916 million loss was the money of other individuals. “The long and the short of it is he lost other people’s money, one way or the other,” said Kleinbard.
The New York Times (October 7, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted in an article about Donald Trump’s tax returns. “The debt forgiveness rule was most important to highly leveraged, big players like Trump,” said Kleinbard. “The 1993 act was designed to loosen the screws on the real estate industry.”
Talking Points Memo (October 7, 2016)
Edward Klein bard was quoted on Donald Trump’s reported operating losses on his 1995 tax return. “It is perfectly possible, that he could have still had NOLs [Net Operating Losses] and that would explain it,” said Kleinbard.
Bloomberg (October 7, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted in a article about Trump’s tax strategy. “Here’s a guy who lost a lot of money that wasn’t his and flipped it back into a tax asset for himself,” said Kleinbard, a former chief of staff of the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. There’s only one way to know how he did it, Kleinbard said. “He should release his tax returns.”
Bloomberg (October 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about what President-elect Donald Trump’s tax returns might reveal. “Straightforward bad real estate investing cushioned by extremely generous tax rules,” says Kleinbard. “Yes, there was a real economic loss, but it was other people’s money that got lost. And by virtue of these complex rules, he got to use the tax loss attributable to losing other people’s money.”
The Washington Post (October 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted in an article about Trump lobbying Congress for real estate tax breaks. “Real estate investment has a magic, ‘Heads I win, tails you lose’ rule,” said Kleinbard.
The Nation (October 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard tax law expertise was cited on Trump’s tax strategy.
Bloomberg (October 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on why it is likely the reported $916 million loss on Donald Trump’s 1995 tax return was not his own money. “Straightforward bad real estate investing cushioned by extremely generous tax rules,” said Kleinbard. “Yes, there was a real economic loss, but it was other people’s money that got lost. And by virtue of these complex rules, he got to use the tax loss attributable to losing other people’s money.”
The Chicago Tribune (October 5, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on the potential impacts to corporations from a new corporate-tax plan backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan. “In all cases,” said Kleinbard, “the proposal appears to violate World Trade Organization rules, though tax and trade lawyers are vigorously debating this.
Los Angeles Times (October 5, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on Donald Trump’s tax proposals and his subsidies for real estate investment.“There’s nothing in the Trump tax proposals that would cut back on all the special tax subsidies for real estate investment” said Kleinbard
Barrons (October 4, 2016)
Edward Kleinbards analysis on Donald Trump’s taxes that was originally quoted on MSNBC were cited.
The Wall Street Journal (October 4, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on the probable source of losses on Donald Trump’s 1995 tax return.
Slate (October 3, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on the likely source of losses claimed on Donald Trump’s 1995 tax return. “It’s normal for a real estate developer to operate at a loss because of interest and depreciation,” said Kleinbard
The Daily Beast (October 3, 2016)
Edward Klienbard was mentioned for agreeing with an assessment of the losses on Donald Trump’s 1995 tax returns.
MSNBC (October 3, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about conclusions and inferences that can be made from the release of Donald Trump’s 1995 tax documents. “The real trick”, said Kleinbard, “was that he lost other people’s money.”
The Washington Post (October 3, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on the likely source of losses on Donald Trump’s 1995 tax returns. “The loss likely came from selling some of his investments for values much less than his costs,” Kleinbard said.
The New York Times (October 3, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on the probable source of tax losses identified on Donald Trump’s 1995 tax returns and the likely tax benefits Trump realized in future years resulting from those losses.“He was forced to sell many of his investments in the early 1990s, at pennies on the dollar, teetering on bankruptcy,” said Kleinbard, “There were real economic losses from those investments — borne entirely by the lenders. Yet nonetheless he was able to emerge with a large net operating loss to carry forward, attributable primarily to losing other people’s money.”
The State (September 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about real estate tax strategy. “The joke in real estate is if you are close to paying taxes, buy another building,” says Kleinbard
McClatchy DC (September 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about common tax strategies for real estate developers like Donald Trump. Trump told debate viewers that, in lieu of the release of his tax returns, they can review his finances through his disclosure statement to the Federal Election Commission. “That’s not really true. Financial statements are audited, they have a statement of outside auditors, they’ve applied consistent and known accounting standards … they have elaborate footnotes,” said Kleinbard. “None of which is true in the FEC disclosures.”
Politico (September 29, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on the U.S. Treasury Department’s pushback against the European Commission’s decision against Apple.“It is ironic, to put it mildly, that Treasury defends its use of Section 385 as an innovative resurrection of a code section long given up for dead, while attacking the EC for inventing retroactive new law,”said Kleinbard. “EU principles of state aid have been applied continuously to tax cases for many decades.”
Bloomberg (September 29, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about why a proposed business tax in Oregon finds support among those who feel strongly about income inequality. “It’s a symptom of a larger intuition that corporations are not paying their fair share of tax and that they’ve gamed the system,” said Kleinbard. “The country has gotten richer and there’s been economic growth, but there’s the correct sense that growth has been captured by a very small slice of Americans.”
The Washington Post (September 26, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted in an article on why including taxes on the consumer price for an EpiPen, that the company may not have to pay, is dishonest. “It is intellectually dishonest to include tax provisions for U.S. taxes that aren’t due, and that the company does not in fact anticipate ever having to pay,” said Kleinbard
Ars Technica (September 26, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard’s quote in a Washington Post article about EpiPen profits was cited. “It is intellectually dishonest to include tax provisions for US taxes that aren’t due and that the company does not in fact anticipate ever having to pay” said Kleinbard.
The Irish Independent (Ireland) (September 18, 2016)
An op-ed by Edward Kleinbard was cited on Apple’s corporate tax practices in Ireland.”The remedy is to force Apple to pay the Irish tax that should have been collected from the income earned from its Irish subsidiary. This is source country tax to which Ireland clearly has the first claim,” said Kleinbard.
Bloomberg (September 12, 2016)
Research by Edward Kleinbard was cited on dubbing corporate tax departments as “tax distilleries.”
Tax Prof Blog (September 8, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard’s op-ed was mentioned in a story about the spin put on the case by Apple and its allies.
Politico (September 8, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard’s op-ed was mentioned about the spin put on the case by Apple and its allies, by arguing that the controversy is not a tax case at all.
Politico (September 8, 2016)
Edward Kleinbards op-ed was cited in an article about Apple’s tax agreement with Ireland and how it represented unfair competitive practices as part of the European Union.
The Hill (September 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard wrote an op-ed on Apple’s tax avoidance strategy in Ireland and the possible reforms to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future. Kleinbard calls for “comprehensive tax transparency to global tax authorities,” “comprehensive reform of U.S. financial accounting standards” and immediate changes to the U.S. corporate tax rate.
Financial Times (September 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard wrote an op-ed on Apple’s tax agreement with Ireland and how it represented unfair competitive practices as part of the European Union. “On one hand, we have Apple and its allies in the US Treasury furiously applying their spin to the European Commission’s “state aid” ruling against the company. On the other, we have the fact that the underlying issues are complex, falling at the juncture of two legal areas — competition law and tax — that rarely come into contact. Put these facts together and the result is widespread misunderstanding. It is time to puncture two myths in particular that have gained currency,” he wrote.
Bloomberg Business (September 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard’s comments were cited on how Apple is portraying the European Commission’s $14.5 billion decision against Ireland as a “tax crisis,” but in fact it was a competition finding that Ireland gave the company hidden subsidies in return for jobs.
The New York Times (September 1, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on why it is unlikely the U.S. will retaliate against Europe using an archaic tax code in Apple’s tax dispute with the European Commission. “This is an option that is viable only in the minds of a handful of analysts who seem willing to put the entire global trade order at risk,” said Kleinbard.
Los Angeles Times (September 1, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard had comments cited on the future taxations of American companies abroad. “The easy days of single-digit tax rates are going to be over,” Kleinbard said.
South China Sea Network (China) (August 31, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on how Apple’s efforts to circumvent tax regulations in Ireland is common in the United States, but illegal in Europe.
Press Reader (Italy) (August 31, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed on how Apple’s efforts to circumvent tax regulations in Ireland is common in the United States, but illegal in Europe.
Arkansas Online (August 31, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about Apple’s European due taxes. “U.S. companies are the grandmasters of tax avoidance,” said Kleinbard. “Nevertheless, because of the nature of U.S. politics,” he said, the Apple case “will be framed by the U.S. as Europe overreaching and discriminating against ‘our team.'”
Fox Business (August 31, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Apple’s stockpile of untaxed foreign profits. European governments should get the first chance to tax those profits, said Kleinbard, “I see it as the United States digging in its heels, that it is protecting its corporate champions when in fact it’s claim jumping on what is really European income,” he said.
Bloomberg (August 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted in an article about the Department of the Treasury’s response to formal tax order issued by the European Commission for Apple to pay significant back taxes to the Irish government. This “stateless income,”Kleinbard argued in a 2011 article, was becoming a “pervasive presence” that “changes everything” about corporate taxes.
Bloomberg Radio (August 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about the European Commission’s decision to fine Apple Corp. a record €13 billion ($14.5 billion) plus interest in fines after Ireland illegally slashed the company’s tax bill. ” It’s a fascinating because it’s understood by a lot of people as a tax case since the outcome… it is not a tax case at all”, says Kleinbard. “Apple engaged in a two-step kind of approach to its European tax break.”
NPR (August 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about the implications of the Apple tax ruling for U.S. companies in Europe. “Logically the United States should be troubled by the low tax rate in Ireland, and it should be not at all troubled by the commission’s finding that Ireland entered into a one-off negotiated deal to subsidize Apple.”
Business Insider (August 30, 2016)
Edward Klienbard was quoted about Apple having to pay $14.5 billion in taxes to Ireland.”Apple entered into a deal with Ireland to not pay tax on all those profits,” says Kleinbard. Instead, Apple paid “an arbitrarily small amount to Ireland in return for a vague promise to keep jobs in Ireland.”
Los Angeles Times (August 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Apple to pay its European taxes. “They [Apple] put as much energy into tax avoidance policies as they did into industrial design,” said Kleinbard.
Yahoo Finance (August 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Apple’s tax operations in Europe. “It turns out Apple Sales International was not merely earning stateless income, but it was a stateless company,” says Kleinbard. “Apple invests as much in tax avoidance technologies as it does in its industrial design.”
The Christian Science Monitor (August 30, 2016)
Edward kleinbard was interviewed in an article about a record-breaking audit on Apple Inc., ordering the tech giant to pay Ireland 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes in a controversial ruling. “U.S. companies are the grandmasters of tax avoidance,” says Kleinbard. “Nevertheless, because of the nature of U.S. politics, [the Apple case] will be framed by the U.S. as Europe overreaching and discriminating against ‘our team.’ ”
Associated Press (August 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the European Commission announcing that it was ordering Apple to pay $14.5 billion (13 billion euros) in back taxes plus interest. This “stateless income,” was becoming a “pervasive presence” that “changes everything” about corporate taxes.
Financial Times (August 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about the Department of the Treasury’s response to formal tax order issued by the European Commission for Apple to pay significant back taxes to the Irish government. “This will be framed by the U.S. as Europe overreaching,” said Kleinbard. “That overreaction will make it a lot more difficult to police companies’ international tax structures.”
The Wall Street Journal (August 30, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about the Department of the Treasury’s response to formal tax order issued by the European Commission for Apple to pay significant back taxes to the Irish government. “This will be framed by the U.S. as Europe overreaching,” said Kleinbard. “That overreaction will make it a lot more difficult to police companies’ international tax structures.”
TEDx Talk (August 30, 2016)
Searching for our Fiscal Soul: Edward Kleinbard explores empathy in the most difficult circumstances imaginable: empathy for folks you do not know, and if you did know, you may not like — your fellow Americans. All of them.
Los Angeles Times (August 29, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted in Michael Hiltzik’s column about the difference between the carried interest and capital gains tax loopholes. Hiltzik referred to Kleinbard as a “peerless tax expert.”
The Hill (August 29, 2016)
The Hill ran an op-ed by Edward Kleinbard on why the Department of the Treasury is vigorously defending the American companies from accusations of receiving illegal “state aid” subsidies while operating on foreign soil. According to Kleinbard, the U.S. is trying to avoid ceding primary tax authority to foreign countries. “Treasury sees U.S. firms holding a $2 trillion pot of very low-taxed offshore income and hopes to engineer an end game in which, as part of corporate tax reform, the United States is first in line to collect tax on that amount,” said Kleinbard.
CNBC (August 29, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about Apple’s single-digit tax rates. Kleinbard agreed the tax system in the U.S. is broken. However, “because it’s broken, firms invert. Because it’s broken, Apple pays extraordinarily low tax rates on its global income. The end result is going to be more tax for Apple regardless of tomorrow’s ruling,” he said.
Politico (August 25, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about the Department of the Treasury’s response to formal tax order issued by the European Commission for Apple to pay significant back taxes to the Irish government. “The wronged party here is not the U.S. companies who do business all over the world, and all over Europe, where every tax rate is in double digits and yet they pay tax at a single-digit rate. The wronged party is all the European countries that got snookered,” said Kleinbard. “The United States has no business of championing the cause of global tax avoiders. These are big boys and girls.”
The Street (August 23, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard’s op-ed was cited on Donald Trump’s motivations behind keeping his tax returns private.
The Wall Street Journal (August 21, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on the proposed tax plan in the U.S. House of Representatives and how it affects the federal government’s jurisdiction over foreign corporate profits. The House plan “concedes too much taxing jurisdiction” by giving up U.S. taxation of high-tech companies’ foreign profits, said Kleinbard.
ABC News Santa Rosa affiliate KSRO-FM (August 16, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns. “I think the reason we ought to be concerned is that the best reason for him not to show his tax returns is because at some level, consciously or unconsciously, he is still focused on the fact that he is a businessman and doesn’t want to reveal the intimate details of his profitability,” Kleinbard said.
Los Angeles Times (August 15, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was cited about labeling the capital gains tax as the only voluntary tax in the country.
Politico (August 8, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard’s op-ed was cited about Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns. Kleinbard argues it is not in Trump’s business interests to release his returns, especially if he does not become president. “Donald Trump has not turned his back on the business world and committed himself irrevocably to a political career, but rather remains entirely focused on the Trump brand and business,” Kleinbard wrote.
Los Angeles Times (August 8, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Donald Trump’s “unrealistic” economic proposals. “At some point, you can’t live in a world completely divorced from economic reality,” said Kleinbard. He called Trump’s simultaneous tax cuts and new spending “fundamentally unrealistic.”
The Hill (August 5, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard’s wrote an op-ed on Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns. Kleinbard argues it is not in Trump’s business interests to release his returns, especially if he does not become president. “Donald Trump has not turned his back on the business world and committed himself irrevocably to a political career, but rather remains entirely focused on the Trump brand and business,” Kleinbard wrote.
New York Times (August 4, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about a legal suit brought by business groups over a government crackdown on tax inversions. “I would be quite surprised if this case survived the obvious defense by the Justice Department that this is an attempt to short-circuit the regular course of tax collections’.
American Public Media’s “Marketplace” (August 2, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on whether or not Facebook might owe billions in back taxes related to a subsidiary company it set-up in Ireland.
CNN (July 28, 2016)
Ed Kleinbard was quoted on what people may or may not learn about Donald Trump’s ties to Russia if his tax returns were released. “There’s no way looking at the face of the return that mob ties or any other [inappropriate business relationships] will leap from the pages of the tax forms to the reader’s attention” said Kleinbard.
Boston Globe (July 10, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on how corporations avoid taxes on foreign income by leaving it in foreign investment accounts. Kleinbard said the overseas money essentially becomes “stateless income” because it is “divorced from where the real factors of production are located, and arbitrarily booked in the most convenient tax haven.”
Ian Masters (July 3, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed on Ian Masters on the value of a complementary economy and his latest TEDx talk, “Searching for Our Fiscal Soul.” “If you compare the United States to other affluent countries, what you discover is that we have the worst inequality numbers of any major wealthy economy,” said Kleinbard. “We need to get back to a complementary economy in which we respect the private sector, but understand that the private sector by itself can not satisfy all of our needs.”
Politico (July 1, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard’s research was highlighted on a Congressional proposal for corporate dividend integration. “This unusual form of dividend integration is really designed to offer U.S. firms a quick and dirty form of costless corporate tax reform, in which their financial accounting effective tax rate decreases, but for entirely artificial reasons,” Kleinbard said.
Vanity Fair (June 23, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the rules surrounding real estate and property taxes. “Trump has sophisticated tax advisers,” says Kleinbard, “and I can’t find a technical tax reason why he wouldn’t have used Silicon Valley tax technologies to park his foreign royalties in an offshore tax haven at near-zero tax rates. If Trump didn’t do this, he might want to ask his advisers why they didn’t recommend it.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune (June 20, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was cited about profit shifting based on international tax rates. Kleinbard said that many of these foreign profits were not earned in the countries where the profits were booked. He believes the erosion of countries’ tax bases by profit shifting is a serious problem that must be addressed.
Bloomberg Technology (June 13, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on how Microsoft used corporate tax policies to its advantage in its LinkedIn purchase. Under the current tax policy, Microsoft’s borrowing was tantamount to “a tax-free repatriation,” said Kleinbard. “The offshore money continues to sit, invested in portfolio assets, earning a rate of return — and the new borrowing then incurs an income expense, so the two offset each other…it means a somewhat bloated balance sheet, but that cosmetic blemish is a lot less costly than writing out a big check to the Treasury.”
Boston Herald (May 26, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted on Donald Trump’s tax proposals. Kleinbard agrees with Trump’s call for an end to deferrals so foreign earnings are taxed in real-time instead of only when they’re declared in the U.S. as dividends. “Much as it pains me to say it, I agree with that instinct,” Kleinbard said. “Worldwide taxation, eliminating deferrals, is the only stable place for the United States to end up.”
Bloomberg (May 11, 2016)
Prof. Edward Kleinbard was quoted on whether or not a change in Senate leadership would produce legislation for infrastructure improvements. “Revenues for infrastructure have proven problematic in the past”, said Kleinbard. “A ‘simple flip’ in the Senate would not produce the kind of legislation that would satisfy progressives.”
Moyers & Company (April 11, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was cited in an article about tax inversions. Kleinbard was a leading creator of tax dodges for the wealthy before exposing the devices in an effort to make laws more simpler and fairer. He described profits that escape taxation as “stateless income.”
The New York TImes (April 7, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the ease of setting up tax havens and shell corporations in the United States. A U.S. law requires foreign financial firms to disclose details about American clients with offshore accounts, but it is one of the few countries — along with Panama — that has refused to sign new international standards for sharing such information with other countries. “The United States demands that the rest of the world tell it when an American holds an account at a foreign institution, but the U.S. does not return the courtesy by automatically providing comparable information on foreign investors in U.S. banks to their home tax jurisdictions,” Kleinbard said.
NPR / WAMU 88.5 (April 7, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed on “The Diane Rehm Show” about new rules issued by the U.S. Treasury Department designed to discourage corporate tax inversions. “An inversion is a U.S. company acquiring a smaller foreign company, but doing it upside down so that, as a formal matter, the foreign company is the acquirer and not the target. There is no economic reason for that. It’s an entirely tax driven structure to a business combination and the reason to do it is to remain a U.S. company in substance, as the Allergan case demonstrates, while, at the same time, taking advantage of foreign parent ownership to reduce U.S. tax liability,” Kleinbard said. “So it’s a serious problem.”
KPFK-FM (April 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed on “Background Briefing with Ian Masters” about the Panama Papers leak. “What I take from this in-fact that tax evasion is alive and well among high network individuals all over the world. One of the most interesting aspects of this particular leak is that relatively few Americans are directly implicated in this leak,” Kleinbard said.
Reuters (April 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the difficulties inherent in suing the federal government over tax rules, which would challenge anyone considering a lawsuit over a recent plan to discourage corporate tax inversions. The measures unveiled by the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday have already killed a potential merger of U.S.-based Pfizer, Inc. and Ireland-based Allergan, Plc. that would have reduced the company’s effective tax rate. “For better or worse, there really aren’t timely ways of challenging a tax regulation like this,” Kleinbard said.
The Wall Street Journal (April 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was cited about how proposed Treasury Department regulations on corporate tax inversions could also affect foreign companies with ordinary U.S. operations. Kleinbard said that the proposed regulations would mainly affect those foreign companies that buy shares in U.S. companies through a tender offer and then want to recapitalize the company to pay itself back.
The Los Angeles Times (April 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about whether the federal government’s approach to stemming corporate tax inversions is the best one. Kleinbard said a more effective approach would be to attack inversions at the root by reducing the gap between the U.S. corporate income tax in comparison with the rest of the world. That could mean significantly reducing the U.S. corporate rate, but Kleinbard said “worldwide tax consolidation at a fair rate” would be the right solution for a cleaner, fairer and more productive corporate tax.
American Public Media (April 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted in “Marketplace” about how much additional tax revenue the U.S. Treasury Department’s recent rules to clamp down on corporate tax inversions and earning stripping could generate over the next decade. He said it won’t quite live up to an estimate from Congress. “What Treasury did is definitely worth tens of billions of dollars to tax revenues,” he said. “It’s south of $90 billion and north of $10 billion.”
The Wall Street Journal (April 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about a proposed regulation from the U.S. Treasury Department to target “serial inverters,” or companies that are involved in multiple corporate tax inversion transactions. Kleinbard called the regulation more ambitious than past efforts to curtail the practice. “That is, to my way of thinking, a bit troubling, because you end up concluding that a series of unrelated transactions, each of which has real economic consequences, nonetheless have to effectively be treated as one,” Kleinbard said, although he added that he supported Treasury’s decision to target inversions.
Bloomberg BNA (April 6, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the types of deals that would be affected by U.S. Treasury Department regulations designed to curb earnings stripping and corporate tax inversions. Kleinbard said the rules don’t reach a decision by a foreign parent to fund a new acquisition through a U.S. subsidiary using a high amount of debt. He added that it would be better for Congress to fix the issues Treasury took on, with easier technical fixes and “no possible controversy about the ultimate legitimacy of the new rules.”
KPCC-FM (April 5, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was interviewed on “AirTalk” about new U.S. corporate tax inversion rules released by the Treasury Department in the wake of the Panama Papers leak. “They are in many ways much bolder than earlier attempts by Treasury to slow down the pace of corporate inversions,” Kleinbard said. “They are viewed by many people in the market as directly affecting the Pfizer/Allergen merger; you can see by looking at the Allergen stock price today.”
Politico (April 4, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the financial assets described in the Panama Papers. “The United States and other countries have made a lot of progress on shining a light on the assets of individuals from their respective countries held in offshore accounts,” Kleinbard said.
The New York Times (February 29, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz publicly disclosing some details of their income tax filings from the first two pages of their 1040 forms. “The top two pages of the 1040s for any individual with multiple sources of income and investments are just a summary compilation of the actual information in all the schedules that lie underneath,” Kleinbard said. “A tax return that does not disclose the underlying information is a very incomplete disclosure.” He added, “Who knows what tax shelters these guys are investing in?”
Law360 (February 24, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard testified before the House Ways and Means Committee about European Union investigations into corporate tax agreements that American companies like Apple, Amazon, Starbucks and McDonald’s made with Luxembourg and the Netherlands. He said it is clear that some of the tax deals made between European countries and American companies were illegitimate and pushed back against the idea that the investigations represented a threat to American businesses.
The Washington Post (February 4, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted in a column by Allan Sloan about a complicated deal involving U.S.-based Johnson Controls Inc. combining with Tyco International PLC, which is based in Ireland for tax purposes. The deal takes advantage of a loophole that gives the company more tax leeway if the shareholders of the U.S. company own between 50 and 60 percent of the combined company. “Congress drew the 60 percent line when it enacted the statute,” Kleinbard said. “There’s no fundamental economic explanation for that decision… . I am not aware of any history that explains why Congress drew the inversion line at 60 percent.”
Al Jazeera (January 17, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about a recent Oxfam report that claims that offshore tax havens for corporations and the wealthy are contributing to economic inequality. Kleinbard said “substantial progress has been made in the last few years.” Corporations “are very aggressive in their interpretation of law, and they negotiate sweetheart deals with countries, and transparency will help with all of that,” he added.
The Wall Street Journal (January 15, 2016)
Edward Kleinbard was quoted about a tax measure proposed by some high-ranking U.S. senators that would impose retaliatory double taxes on European Union countries in response to EU investigations into special tax deals between European countries and U.S.-based companies. Kleinbard said the senators were “pandering to their donors by trying to argue that any tax on a U.S. multinational is an attack on the United States.” “All audits are necessarily retroactive, and the sweetheart deals that U.S. firms reached with some EU countries were always subject to the higher authority of EU law, as applied here to some egregious facts,” Kleinbard added.