President Barack Obama delivered his 2013 budget speech yesterday and despite not dealing with comprehensive reform of the tax code – proposals for which will come in the next few weeks – he reiterated the sentiments of his State of the Union address and called for ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, replacing them with incentives for those companies that conversely bring jobs and investment to the US.
With Barack Obama’s administration having announced that broad corporate tax reform will be dealt with separately in the coming weeks, and political turmoil stifling progress on US tax issues in general, there were no great expectations for the President’s 2013 budget, delivered today. But amid Obama’s rhetoric of hope and camaraderie, of fairness and responsibility, some meaningful tax changes were proposed.
In its latest meeting about comprehensive tax reform, the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday held its first hearing on the effect of tax and financial accounting on tax reform, and on how businesses evaluate tax policy, concluding that financial accounting factors must be a consideration when designing reform.
A UK think-tank has urged the coalition government to halve the corporate tax rate, arguing it is the “only source of a viable economic recovery”, but the report overlooks other vital areas of the tax code such as reform of the controlled foreign company (CFC) regime.
India’s finance minister will present his 2012 budget on March 16 and advisers are warning that taxpayers should be prepared for the adoption of controlled foreign company legislation, a general anti-avoidance rule and a place of effective management regime.
