Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Six of Illinois’ biggest companies hold a combined $100 billion in profits overseas, a strategy that keeps those earnings from being subject to U.S. corporate income taxes,” the Tribune reports.
CEOs of those companies should not be allowed to complain about government, nor run patriotic advertising.
“U.S. corporations face income taxes as high as 35 percent on income earned both domestically and abroad. However, there is one important caveat: Companies aren’t required to pay the U.S. taxes on foreign profits that they say are ‘indefinitely’ reinvested overseas and not brought back, or repatriated, to the U.S.”


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Stating that “U.S. corporations face income taxes as high as 35 percent” is pretty disingenuous, though.
I’d like to know how many U.S. corporations pay 35 percent – and how their CEOs keep their jobs if they do.
To wit:
“The reality is very different, as a new paper by a law professor at the University of Southern California, Edward D. Kleinbard, says,” R.C. Longworth writes on The Midwesterner, a blog on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in an entry picked up by both the Sun-Times and Crain’s.
“According to Kleinbard, the big American corporations – the global corporations which are threatening to pick up and move – actually make out like bandits at tax time.
“As any sophisticated corporation knows, there are various tax loopholes to keep that nominal rate nominal. One of the biggest, Kleinbard says, is the practice of keeping much of their income overseas and out of reach of the IRS. Altogether, he said, American corporations paid an effective tax rate of 12.6 percent in 2010, the last year for which figures are available.
“Kleinbard said it isn’t the tax rates themselves that are tempting American-based companies to move their headquarters, if not their operations, to relatively low-tax venues such as Switzerland or Ireland. Instead, he said, they want to be able to use that money parked abroad without having to pay taxes on it. He estimates this hoard at $2 trillion: taxed at 35 percent, this would bring in $700 billion, which is more than the total U.S. government deficit.
“This discrepancy between appearance and reality is an old story in Illinois, where major corporations such as Caterpillar regularly threaten to move to other states unless the state trims its 9.5 percent corporate tax. In fact, the state’s biggest corporations pay an average 3 percent in taxes and some pay nothing at all.”
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To be clear, even without parking income overseas, American corporations hardly pay burdensome taxes – if they pay at all.
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“Many of the most profitable U.S. corporations paid little or no federal income tax from 2008 to 2012, according to a five-year study issued on Tuesday by a left-leaning tax activist group,” Reuters reported in February.
(Dear Reuters: The study may have been conducted by “a left-leaning tax activist group,” but were they right? I have yet to see their figures refuted.)
Mystery Parents
“A new parent group is holding a school fair this fall that promises to offer something unprecedented: a one-stop place to shop for all schools, whether it be neighborhood, charter or private schools,” Sarah Karp reports for Catalyst.
“CPS has endorsed the Oct. 4 fair and is requiring all district-run high schools to have a display. CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett sent a letter to parents encouraging them to come and district officials are organizing buses for seventh- and eighth-grade parents and students.
“Also, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and the Archdiocese of Chicago are co-sponsors.”
If alarm bells aren’t going off yet, they will.
“ParentPowerChicago has raised suspicion among some parents who are concerned that the people behind the effort have an agenda. They also wonder why CPS would be so heavily involved in an effort that could draw students out of public schools and into private ones.”
Yeah, that seems weird. Then again, the Emanuel administration backs a “district of choice” with a smaller CPS footprint – eventually even smaller than it just got last year with the closure of 50 schools.
The mayor and his team are making ideological choices far more than budget choices – and it’s not a secret. It just seems to get blurred in the debate.
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And who is behind this CPS-endorsed new parent group aiding the effort?
“[ParentPower head Chris] Butler was the outreach and advocacy director of New Schools for Chicago, which provided private funding for charter schools and is now in the process of reorganizing. Also, the IRS lists the address of the organization as the same as Old World Industries in Northbrook. Old World Industries was founded and is run by J. Thomas Hurvis, who served on the board of New Schools for Chicago.
“Other well-connected pro-charter philanthropists, including Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, served on the board of New Schools for Chicago.”
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner.
“ParentPower is a not-for-profit organization and, as such, will have to file public tax returns, called 990s. But because it is only a year-and-a-half old, those returns are not yet available. The Illinois Attorney General’s Charitable Database indicates that ParentPowerChicago had $800,000 in income in 2013 and $90,000 in assets.
“Richard Sanderson, a brand-marketing executive who runs the administrative side of ParentPower, says he and Hurvis are the two major donors. He and Butler declined to provide the names of any other donors.”
Early, Often, Early, Often
“Republican Kathy Myalls is urging voters to elect her to a seat in the Illinois State Legislature,” Natasha Korecki reports for the Sun-Times.
“But will she vote for herself? It’s a fair question since records show Myalls has voted in both Illinois and Wisconsin in recent years.”
I think the question, then, is: Can she vote for herself? Or is she registered in Wisconsin?
“In one case, she cast a vote in a primary election in Illinois. Then just three months later, records show she voted in Wisconsin to cast a ballot in the state’s recall election. The effort was aimed largely at recalling Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker – someone with whom Myalls is pictured on her Facebook page. Myalls then voted in Wisconsin’s presidential general election in 2012 before returning to Illinois to vote the following spring.”
That is just fantastic.
“When asked about her vote in the Walker recall, Myalls said in a phone interview:

“No. I don’t think I did,” she said. “I don’t think they canceled my registration up in Fontana. And that may be what you’re seeing. They didn’t automatically cancel it.”

Wait. Do the records show she voted or not? Myalls appears to be saying the records merely show her registration still active. My experience with voting records is that they show someone actually voted. If that’s the case, you have to make that clear – to Myalls and the reader.
“Illinois voting records show that Myalls has been registered to vote from her Wilmette address from 2005 to the present. By her own admission, Myalls was registered to vote in a second home located in Fontana, Wisconsin, since 1996.”
I wonder if she takes homestead exemptions at both.
“Records show she voted in separate elections in both states in 2008 and 2012.”
So she’s a liar. Right?
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In Tresty We Trusty . . .
. . . With A Dash Of Lovie.
Chicagoetry: Mirages Of Matchstick Men
Beneath the blue suburban skies.
Kickstarting A Skinhead Memoir
Plus: A Bookman Down & The People Of The Paper. In Local Book Notes.
The Cub Factor: Tommy Boy
In production!
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BeachBook
* McDonald’s To Trademark McBrunch.
Just stay away from McBeachwood.
* Privatized Indiana Toll Road Goes Bankrupt.
If only they ran it like a government.
* We Drink More Alcohol On Gym Days.
Speak for yourself; some of us don’t have gym days.
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TweetWood


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Live and let van.

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Posted on September 22, 2014