Robbery is easily defined by Random House in a common law sense, as "taking the property of another," with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear. When that definition is further analyzed, it most notably resembles our United States tax law. The tax law is really, in essence, a legal form of robbery.
Our government has formed the legal right to tax all U.S. citizens, U.S. companies and pretty much anyone else that transacts business in any form within our legal borders. They permanently deprive any person and/or corporation of those tax dollars (property), through force or fear, such as the IRS' threatening letters forcing the levy of property, wages, assets or even imprisonment until the tax bill is fully paid or collected. Given that, one could conclude that our tax system is definitely not a voluntary system as opposed to what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid D-Nev. seems to think, per his famous online interview at FreeLiberal.com, "Paying income taxes in America is voluntary."
Assuming that I'm right and our U.S. tax system is a form of robbery, what would the normal reaction be? Probably finding a way to seek shelter from that robbery again and again, or at least reduce the impact of the theft to every extent possible. It's no surprise, therefore, that many American corporations are moving their jobs, production, manufacturing and even headquarters outside the U.S., if all they get by being here is continuous robbery.
I saw an interesting 60 Minutes report on March 27 by Lesley Stahl, which was about this corporate tax issue. If you haven't seen the video, I highly recommend watching it. Her story talked about how American companies are finding new overseas tax havens to legally protect some of their profits. During the piece, Ms. Stahl interviews Congressman Lloyd Doggett D-Tex., who insinuates that corporations moving their headquarters and executives to other countries such as Switzerland or Ireland are, in some way, unethical. Personally, I don't see it that way.
If the U.S. corporate tax rate is 35%—which, by the end of April will become the highest corporate tax rate in the world behind Japan—I can't see why any decision maker on the corporate front would not make a strategic business move to Ireland where they would only pay 12.5%.
Making Money for Shareholders
I think most forget to understand that corporations are in business to make the most money possible for their shareholders. Therefore, any reduction of expenses, such as taxes, indirectly increases the corporation's profitability, which helps