Gone Baby Gone

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Another business leaving Minnesota, explicitly for tax reasons.  Democrat Al Franken is “troubled” . . . not that he’s chased away another business, but that they’re taking their taxes with them.

Joe Doakes

On the other hand, all of the company’s workers that are relocating elsewhere can still “vote Democrat” for another 70 years or so.

15 thoughts on “Gone Baby Gone

  1. ” . . . U.S. Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat, said: “Deals that result in companies reincorporating abroad often mean that they can shelter profits overseas, costing taxpayers billions of dollars — which I find troubling.”
    All those dollars the government doesn’t take from you in taxes? It costing the taxpayers money. I assume that Franken knows that taxes are part of the cost of doing business and are passed on to customers.
    Besides, the government can just print the money it needs.

  2. Medtronic had about $20.5 billion in undistributed earnings from non-U.S. subsidiaries – in a $49.2 billion deal. 40% levels don’t happen by accident in sophisticated companies. The deal is not lightening Medtronic’s tax burden because they intentionally structured their operations to never pay US or Minnesota taxes on those earnings.

    Matt Gardner is a liar (and he knows it) when he said. “In the long run, we’ll all have to pay higher taxes to pay for what Medtronic is doing.” It does not cost our government anything when taxes that are never going to be owed are not paid.

    The question was asked and answered 80 years ago by Judge Learned Hand. “Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.”
    Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809, 810-11 (2d Cir. 1934).

  3. Well, two more companies are also leaving MN:

    Nash Finch (now Spartan Nash) is leaving Edina for western Michigan

    http://article.wn.com/view/2013/11/25/Another_Fortune_500_company_leaves_Minnesota/

    and Advance Auto Parts is leaving Bloomington and heading to Raleigh, NC, where they will add 600 jobs at an average comp of $100K! Could the fact that NC is a Right to Work state be a factor? Nah! I can’t believe that Minnesota’s quality of life wouldn’t keep a company here. (snark)

  4. Emery, you’re correct, Congress does write the tax code. Congress is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Al Franken (D-Minn) is a United States Senator. He cast the deciding vote in favor of Obama-care. Obama-care instituted a tax on manufacturers of medical devices. Medtronic makes medical devices. Medtronic is taking this action to move from Minnesota because of the US tax code that Al Franken voted for. Our US Senator chased jobs away from his own state.

  5. If Medtronics profits from foreign operations should be taxed in Minnesota, then shouldn’t Joe Mauers income from playing ball in out-of-state ballparks also be taxed in Minnesota?

  6. Chuck, don’t give them any ideas. Remember this is the state that tried to say that when you retired and moved to Florida, you still owed Minnesota income tax on your retirement earnings.

  7. Money goes where it is welcomed and doesn’t care a whit about “quality of life.” Medtronic knows this. Franken, evidently, doesn’t.

  8. Regarding taxation and Ireland, it’s worth noting that one can set up something of a “shell game” where you realize profits at a higher rate in the Irish subsidiary, which reduces profits on Irish-made components from Medtronic when they are sold in the U.S. And for that matter, a 35% corporate income tax gives a lot of incentive to manufacture as much as possible overseas. Like in Ireland.

  9. I doubt that Franken really gives a rip about any of this. Even his re-election, even if he understood any of it. His Hollywood/ LA career was hardly on fire, and he was likely getting bored with it anyway.

    Think of the book; how an unqualified ex-resident with enough cash and high- profile supporters can dazzle a bunch of Midwestern hicks into actually voting him into high political office. Then, the hijinks that followed his questionable victory – heck, he didn’t even have to cheat – his sycophantic followers were more than happy to do so for him (although the D following his name meant more to them than his name itself did).

    I suspect that once he leaves for home from Minnesota, win or lose, his forthcoming book will make his previous work, “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot!” look like a fawning, patronizing Shakespearian biography. I wonder who will play me in the movie?

  10. “He [Franken] cast the deciding vote in favor of Obama-care.”

    There are many “cast the deciding vote” (voter education) campaigns being run on behalf of GOP candidates in other states as well…..

  11. “There are many “cast the deciding vote” (voter education) campaigns being run on behalf of GOP candidates in other states as well…..”
    That’s because every vote for Obama-care can be considered the deciding vote. All of the Senators who voted for knew what they were doing, that the “deciding vote” issue would be used against them.
    Perhaps you forget that in 2010 the Dems, idiots that they are, believed their own propaganda. They thought that Obamacare was going to be popular.
    Obama knows nothing but machine politics. Franken has an Ivy League degree in poli-sci. He knew exactly what he was doing.

  12. Emery, the relevant tax when locating facilities is, as always, the marginal tax rate, 35%.

    And besides, 18% is STILL higher than Ireland’s corporate income tax. And the extra stout is fresher there, too.

  13. Emery forgets the device tax that Franken voted to impose on every Medtronic pacemaker sold.

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