Frank Yan for the Tax Foundation: As the debate over corporate inversions reignites over Pfizer’s move to acquire Irish-based company Allergan, Ireland is reporting a massive surge in corporate tax revenues for 2015.
Ireland’s Department of Finance recently announced that from January to October, it has collected $5.1 billion in corporate tax revenues, 74 percent over its target for the month. By the end of the year, Ireland is expecting to collect $7.2 billion in corporate tax revenue, an increase of 45 percent over 2014 revenues. …
Did the corporate tax fairy decide to generously slip extra receipts under Ireland’s pillow? Not exactly. The Irish Times reports that a great majority of the surge in tax revenues may be attributed to multinational companies, such as Apple, booking increasing levels of profits in Ireland. This is part of a global trend, where companies seek to mitigate their corporate tax burdens by moving income from high-tax jurisdictions, such as the United States, to low-tax jurisdictions, such as Ireland.
It is unlikely that Ireland will continue to experience such dramatic increases in tax revenues, but its economic environment and competitive tax policy certainly point to steady increases in corporate tax revenue Ireland is attractive for foreign investment because it offers skilled, English-speaking workers and offers access to the Eurozone …
The competitiveness of Ireland and other multination-friend countries weighs considerably on U.S. corporate tax reform. In comparison to other countries like Ireland, the U.S. has one of the least competitive tax systems, partially due to its high statutory corporate tax rate.
How not to waste food
Cris Cambianca for the Roosevelt Institute: This summer, Chicago-based Groupon announced its acquisition of OrderUp, a food delivery service that operates in 40 states including Illinois. This acquisition comes in addition to Groupon’s recent creation of Groupon to Go, which connects online users to nearby food delivery. Another Chicago-based company, Grubhub, bought Restaurants on the Run last year to provide delivery service to customers. These are salient reminders that Chicago’s food industry and its delivery network are huge and expanding.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository estimates that one in six Chicagoans don’t have regular access to healthy food. Many of these residents, especially in the south and west of Chicago, live in areas without nearby grocery stores or restaurants. Nonprofits like the Greater Chicago Food Depository cannot meet this demand, despite having the capacity to process more food, because there is a lack of donations. If even a small fraction of Chicago’s thrown-out food were salvageable and rescued, many more Chicagoans could be fed.
What if the healthy excess food that numerous restaurants and cafeterias throw away were distributed across Chicago using the technology and distribution industries the city has already developed and continues to develop? … Presently food donors are provided tax deductions and are protected from liability for food they donate. These tax deductions should be promoted and expanded so that they are more heavily used and offer means for small businesses and local pantries to coordinate food pick-up and distribution.
It is already clear that tax deductions for food donations can provide fresh, safe food and reduce waste while saving businesses money. For instance, last year the app ZeroPercent launched as a for-profit company that connects restaurant donors to nearby pantries through push notifications. Just by sending food pantries push notifications when food is available for rescue, the app enables the rescue of thousands of pounds of food each week. For food donors, the app pays for itself because ZeroPercent keeps track of food donation receipts, saving some businesses thousands of dollars through tax deductions.
Men more worried about family time
Elizabeth Weingarten for the New America Foundation: Are women so worried about how people will perceive their prioritizing family over work that they’ve started to back off? Does this point to changing norms around masculinity and fatherhood — and men feeling more comfortable asserting their status as caregivers at work?
More and more, working fathers are feeling the same pressure and desire to prioritize family that working mothers have felt for decades. The National Study of the Changing Workforce found, for instance, that between 1977 and 2008, the percentage of mothers in dual-earner couples who reported feeling conflicted about work-family responsibilities grew from 41 percent to 47 percent, while for fathers it surged from 25 percent to 60 percent. Nearly half of working dads (48 percent) say they don’t spend enough time with their children, compared to 26 percent of working mothers.
In response to these pressures, working fathers are demanding more time. According to a Boston College Center for Work and Family survey, 89 percent of fathers said it was important for employers to provide some kind of paid leave; three-fourths of those surveyed said they should give fathers two to four weeks.
Compiled by Joseph Lawler from reports published by the various think tanks.
