Encouraging an 'export mentality' by reducing taxes

Citing statistics that only 4 percent of US companies export,in July 2010, ACA wrote to all members of the President’s Export Council: “The nation must gear up to exporting as it has never done before.The challenge involves creating an ‘export mentality’ among small and medium-sized companies as well as encouraging large multinationals to intensify their efforts and broaden their foreign markets.

The letter points out three existing roadblocks to increasing export activity:

US taxation of citizens working overseas, which has led to them being too expensive for companies to employ. What company can sell products without sales personnel on hand?

US tax burdens on foreign subsidiaries of US corporations. Let’s get in step with the rest of the world, which applies residency-based taxation on corporations.

Recently-passed FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) legislation complicates banking relationships abroad. ACA concludes: “As patriotic American citizens and observers from abroad of the US economy, we are deeply concerned about the crucial need to increase the competitiveness of US companies and to get more American companies on the export bandwagon.”