Kent Conrad: “I simply say to my colleague on the other side with respect to the Senator's amendment, you can close a tax loophole and…”

“I simply say to my colleague on the other side with respect to the Senator's amendment, you can close a tax loophole and not raise taxes on any Americans. As a member of the Finance Committee, I have been trying for some time to deal with the question of the fact that 73 percent of the foreign corporations doing business in the United States do not pay a penny of taxes here. The question is, how can that be? How do they avoid paying taxes in the United States when they are obviously doing very well here? Mr. President, the reason is, we have a scheme called transfer pricing in the international tax system that allows corporations to put their taxes or their profits where there are no taxes. Foreign corporations who are in here competing with American corporations have been taking advantage of this loophole in a very significant way to avoid paying any taxes here. That is not only unfair to U.S. taxpayers, that is unfair to U.S. companies who are expected to compete with the foreign enterprise that escapes and avoids tax responsibility, that an American-based corporation cannot escape and avoid. I say that my colleague from Nebraska has come up with a very reasonable way to take care of the needs of our veterans by closing a tax loophole.”