The Obama administration has slapped new penalties on companies (once again without going through Congress) to prevent them from lawfully merging with other companies, where they would have the freedom to move their corporate headquarters to lower-tax countries. There are many ways to encourage companies to keep their headquarters in the United States, and so far the Obama administration has ignored them all.  It could lower corporate tax rates across the board from 35% to a more competitive rate, it could go to a territorial tax system that doesn’t double tax income, it could enact tort reform, and it could reduce other expensive regulations. Whenever the government adds new taxes, new regulations, higher minimum wages, higher health care costs, paid family leave laws (as in San Francisco), etc., that encourages companies to invest elsewhere. It is estimated that corporations are keeping trillions of dollars that they earned outside the U.S.  The...(Read Full Post)