2012 – Edward D. Kleinbard

Press: 2012

CQ Weekly (December 17, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about corporate tax rates. The Treasury Department found last year that only 4 percent of small businesses are affected by the top two tax brackets – and thus would be subject to Obama’s proposal. At the same time, those few enterprises reported roughly a third of all pass-through income nationwide. “The impact has in many ways been greatly overstated,” said Kleinbard, who said he is skeptical that higher tax rates even on a few small businesses would dampen either job growth or business investment. Since salaries and capital expenses are deductible business expenses, they wouldn’t be affected by higher tax rates, he said. “There’s zero tax on the firm income that goes to pay a new employee,” he says. “If you can add an employee and in doing so make money, you’ll still do so. Otherwise you’re leaving dollar bills on the sidewalk.”

NPR (December 11, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about the fiscal cliff. “The first few days of 2013 are not going to radically change his or her life, but as the weeks go by, at some point, take-home pay will go down noticeably,” he said.

The Washington Post (December 8, 2012)

A business tax proposal by Edward Kleinbard was cited. Kleinbard proposed a business tax where “One could subject all business income, including that from small partnerships and sole proprietorship to a single business enterprise income tax.”

Bloomberg News (December 6, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the fiscal cliff. “The cliff should be turned into a ramp. Spend the automatic spending cuts and allow the Bush tax cuts to expire in three years instead of overnight. Congress would commit to devote all of the saving from future spending cuts to lowering tax rates, starting with the lowest brackets, not the highest,“ he said.

The New York Times (December 4, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the impact of successful tax reform on the U.S. economy. “If eliminating tax expenditures did bring a one-half percent increase in the annual pace of economic growth it would be a significant accomplishment. You’d be taking victory laps,” he said.

The New York Times (November 30, 2012)

The Washington Post (November 29, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about corporate tax breaks on foreign profits. “The territorial tax system they envision would gut the entire U.S. corporate tax code. It would lose gigantic sums of money every year,” he said.

The Los Angeles Times (November 21, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the U.S. tax system. “It’s insane to have two rival tax systems, side by side, that apply to millions of people. And it’s also absurd that every year we’re required to participate in this roller coaster of ‘Will Congress patch it or not’,’” he said.

Huffington Post (November 15, 2012)

The Huffington Post ran an op-ed by Edward Kleinbard about ways to use future spending cuts to reduce tax rates and how Congress is trying to address the fiscal cliff. “Watching the process is like a seat at a performance by a clumsy Houdini, who thrills his audience a little too much when he binds himself in chains and then tries to escape while holding his breath underwater,” Kleinbard wrote.

Huffington Post (November 15, 2012)

Ars Technica (November 13, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted in a story about how major corporations have been using tax loopholes such as the “Double Irish,” and the “Dutch Sandwich,” to reduce the amount of tax they would have to pay in the United States, Ireland, Netherlands, and elsewhere. His paper, “Double Irish” tax shelter technique was cited. “Meanwhile, from a US tax point of view, neither Ireland Limited nor Google BV exists at all. The United States sees only an Irish company with a Bermuda Branch, where most of its net income comes to rest,” he said

NPR News (November 10, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about the potential for Democrats and Republicans to find compromise on tax reform. “It is possible to skin the cat by increasing tax collection from higher-income Americans without increasing their nominal tax rates.”

The Huffington Post (November 6, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the impact on the Romney campaign of the candidate’s refusal to release all his tax returns. “Romney’s refusal during his campaign to release his past tax returns betrayed a contempt for the electorate and for the democratic process, which relies on voters having the requisite information to make informed decisions. The reason for the tradition of releasing past tax returns — not returns prepared in the years an individual is running for the presidency — is to demonstrate that the candidate fully and fairly complied with the tax laws when the spotlight of the election was not already on him.”

Huffington Post (November 6, 2012)

Politico (October 15, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the impact of reducing individual and corporate tax rates. “Tax reform right now has one fundamental thing in common with 1986. That is the country is drowning in tax expenditures,” he said.

The Fiscal Times (October 8, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about tax reform. “There’s no prospect for meaningful tax reform without that (capping tax expenditures) being a key step. That way it’s impossible to pick favorites. The only way to get the job done is to keep all the itemized deductions shackled together and thrown into the sea together,” he said.

Associated Press (September 21, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard about Mitt Romney’s taxes. “All the important compliance and policy questions relating to Romney’s personal tax matters relate to the past. The issue has never been Romney’s 2011 tax return — in fact, it is a distraction to the real issues.”

The New York Times (September 18, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the availability of corporate tax havens. “The complexity of the corporate income tax makes it easy to evade and avoid American taxes,” he said.

The Fiscal Times (September 13, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about tax reform. “There’s no prospect for meaningful tax reform without that (capping tax expenditures) being a key step. That way it’s impossible to pick favorites. The only way to get the job done is to keep all of itemized deductions shackled together and thrown into the sea together.”

Los Angeles Times (September 7, 2012)

An op-ed by Edward Kleinbard ran about corporate tax laws that effectively allow tax cheating. “Presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently praised U.S. businesses for knowing their way around the tax system. Companies are rewarded for using tax havens, which ultimately encourages them to invest in overseas economies rather than America’s. When Romney endorses the idea that U.S. firms are doing right by reporting their profits overwhelmingly in tax havens, he shows contempt for a basic principle of tax law.”

Reuters (September 7, 2012)

Research by Edward Kleinbard about vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s proposed tax plan was highlighted. In the story, the reporter wrote: “Hardly anyone in America knows more about how to avoid taxes than Edward Kleinbard, who spent decades as a tax lawyer finding creative ways for clients to defer or escape their obligations. He has been doing penance by exposing tax perfidies, from 2007 to 2009 as chief of staff for Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation and since then as a tax law professor at the University of Southern California. Kleinbard shows Ryan would turn individual and corporate income taxes into the equivalent of two large payroll taxes with the burden falling almost entirely on workers, not owners and executives.” The Roadmap “is a mechanism for redistributing tax burdens down the income scale,” Kleinbard wrote. “Most ordinary Americans would see their tax burdens increase by around 50 percent,” he concluded, “while the most successful individuals would see reductions in their labor income tax rates, and elimination of all capital tax burdens – including the elimination of the gift and estate tax.”

Wall Street Journal (September 3, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about interactions between the IRS and private equity companies like Bain Capital. He said some firms “seemed to have interpreted the silence of the IRS as acquiescence, which is not correct, but the IRS failed to enforce the rules in this area…Firms ended up taking positions that I think went beyond what the law permitted,” he said. “But the IRS failed to do its job of litigating those issues. Had they done so, a lot of these structures, including possibly Bain’s, would have been disallowed.”

The Washington Post (August 29, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s taxes. “He didn’t specify 13% of what. That is, if you look at taxable income, well of course he paid 13% tax on his taxable income, but that’s an absurd base on which to measure an effective tax rate — it’s completely circular. The better base is adjusted gross income, because that gets closer to economic income.”

The Washington Post (August 24, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s taxes. Kleinbard has doubts that Romney did not use blockers to reduce the current tax burdens on himself or his IRA. Romney has “demonstrated a consistent interest in availing himself of every possible tax minimization strategy and it is greatly improbable that he chose to leave money on the table by not using offshore blocker corporations and the like when doing so could save some tax dollars,” he said.

The Dallas Morning News (August 22, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the 2012 presidential candidates’ positions on tax reform. “ Romney’s plan raises inadequate revenues and second, it asks the working poor and middle class to subsidize the rich. You cannot cut taxes and raise as much revenue and make up the difference through tax expenditures without shifting the burden of tax away from the rich to the poor.”

Dallas Morning News (August 22, 2012)

Forbes (August 22, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was featured in a study about vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap for America’s Future.” Kleinbard noted that Ryan’s plan was proposed when he was a member of a minority and there was little chance of it getting a hearing. “Proponents of the Roadmap or plans like it must explain how any projected increase in economic growth will compensate the majority of Americans for shouldering more tax burdens while receiving smaller government benefits,” Kleinbard wrote.

Bloomberg Businessweek (August 20, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax rate. “It is surprising to me that we countenance a tax system in which a private-equity specialist with $20 million in income pays about the same tax rate as an average working family.”

The New York Times (August 16, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard ran a op-ed about vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s proposed tax reforms. “The Roadmap for America’s Future would shift the tax burden drastically from America’s most affluent to the working poor and middle class. Ryan’s plan thus would exacerbate current worrying trends in income inequality growth.”

The Washington Post (August 16, 2012)

The Washington Post (August 13, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the effects of vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s tax proposals. “You could not do that without substantially shifting the tax burden to the middle class and below” and reducing tax burdens on affluent households. Those are just inescapable facts.”

The New York Times (August 10, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about how the very rich obtain preferential tax rates. “You start with income dominated by tax-preferred income — capital gains and qualified dividends. That gets you to 15 percent. Then you use charitable contributions of appreciated securities to reduce ordinary income. But the charitable contribution deduction is capped at 50 percent of adjusted gross income. Now you’re way down, but you’re not at zero.”

Business Insider (August 10, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s taxes. “Romney’s limited release of tax returns doesn’t dispel the legitimate concerns that arises from hints buried in his scant disclosure to wealth.”

Orlando Sentinel (August 10, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard and colleagues cited a report about the “Son of Boss” tax scandal.

CNN (August 9, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard and a colleague ran a op-ed about Mitt Romney and the “Son of Boss” tax shelter scandal of the ’90s. “Son of Boss” was a prepackaged tax shelter used by Marriott International when Romney sat on the company board’s audit committee. “Romney approved the firm’s reporting of fictional tax losses exceeding $70 million generated by its Son of Boss transaction. His endorsement of this stratagem provides insight into Romney’s professional ethics and attitude toward tax compliance obligations.”

The Washington Post (August 7, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard quoted about presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s taxes. “It is improbable that a man of his wealth would have paid no taxes for 10 years.”

The Huffington Post (August 6, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard ran a op-ed, responding to an op-ed by former White House press officer Ari Fleischer about a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on tax rates. Kleinbard took issue with many of Fleischer’s points. “I want to defend the honor of the CBO itself, since by virtue of its mission it is not able to respond directly to gross distortions of its work product.”

Pacifica Radio (August 5, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was interviewed by Los Angeles affiliate KPFK-FM about the possibility that Mitt Romney is hiding his tax returns.

NPR (July 19, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was interviewed on “Morning Edition” about Mitt Romney’s tax-deferred retirement accounts. “Either Gov. Romney is sort of the modern-day equivalent of Jack and his magic beans, who somehow created a mighty beanstalk, or he took a very aggressive position with respect to valuing insider stock.”

CNN (July 18, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard and lawyer Peter Canellos published a op-ed on presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s announcement that he won’t release his earlier tax returns. “Given Romney’s financial sophistication, it has been assumed by some that there cannot be any tax skeletons in his closet. His reluctance to disclose past returns, however, undermines that assumption.”

The Washington Post (July 17, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Mitt Romney’s 2010 tax return. “Romney had a $4.8 million capital loss carryover coming into 2010. So that means no capital gain income in 2009. If you look on the first page [of his 2010 tax return], though, he had lots of ordinary income (interest mostly), and dividends, which are taxed at the same rate as capital gains but which cannot be sheltered from tax by capital losses. So presumably he had some positive income tax in 2009.”

Vanity Fair (July 9, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard’s research was cited about the possibility of revisiting a century-old U.S. subsidy for oil drilling.

Akron Beach Journal (July 6, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Mitt Romney’s Swiss bank account. “Swiss account has political but not tax-policy resonance since it—like many other Romney investments—constituted a bet against the U.S. dollar, an odd thing for a presidential candidate to do. The Obama campaign provided a helpful world map pointing to the tax havens Bermuda, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands, where Romney and his family have assets, each with the tagline “Value: not disclosed in tax returns.”

Bloomberg News (July 2, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the possibility of revisiting a century-old U.S. subsidy for oil drilling. “To the extent the world is a different place than it was when the policy was first devised, that’s a powerful reason to revisit the need for this subsidy.”

Bloomberg Businessweek (June 27, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about corporate tax rates. “The companies in the coalition tend to have relatively high effective tax rates and have most of their operations based in the U.S.”

The Washington Post (May 11, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was interviewed by numerous media about the tax ramifications of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin giving up his U.S. citizenship. “It definitely is going to reduce his tax burdens,” said Kleinbard. Kleinbard was also quoted by Los Angeles Times, CBS News’ “CBS This Morning” and Bloomberg News.

The Washington Post (May 4, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about federal agencies demanding partial paybacks for tax breaks they distribute.

KQED-FM (May 1, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was interviewed about Apple’s legal tax shelters.

The Fiscal Times (May 1, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about a 1986 tax reform act.

The Washington Post (May 1, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Mitt Romney’s proposed tax plan in a Bloomberg story.

Wall Street Journal (April 4, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Amazon’s transfer pricing issues.

Reuters (March 21, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about tax evasion by transfer pricing. “The valuation problems are insurmountable,” said Kleinbard. “There are billion-dollar disputes on just the arms-length transfer pricing of intangibles.” WTAM-AM also cited Kleinbard.

The New York Times (March 12, 2012)

Testimony given by Edward Kleinbard was cited about a complicated tax deal. The reporter described Kleinbard as an “expert witness hired by one hedge fund in the case… and a rock star in the world of tax law.”

Bloomberg Businessweek (March 2, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about U.S. companies keeping assets overseas in low-tax countries.

The Hill (February 28, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the potential for a corporate tax reform deal this year.

Bloomberg Businessweek (February 24, 2012)

A story quoted Edward Kleinbard about tax rates and the growing gap between the wealthy and poor.

NPR (February 24, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was interviewed on the Washington, D.C.-based “Diane Rehm Show” about on proposed changes to the U.S. corporate tax rate and global competitiveness.

Wall Street Journal (February 24, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Green Bay Packers stock, which pays no dividends, benefits from no earnings, isn’t tradeable and has no securities-law protection. “The stock isn’t worthless as long as someone will buy it, although I wouldn’t,” he says. “Maybe it’s a collectible.”

The Washington Post (February 23, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the revenue costs of Mitt Romney’s proposal to cut federal income tax by an additional 20 percent for all earners.

The Washington Post (February 23, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about similarities between the tax proposals of President Barack Obama and Congressman Dave Camp

The Washington Post (February 22, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about tax breaks serving as the dominant instrument for creating new spending programs. Kleinbard said tax breaks are now the dominant instrument for creating new spending programs. Policymakers can give taxpayers a government benefit and get credit for lowering their tax bills — a combination lawmakers find “irresistible,” Kleinbard said, because they can portray themselves as tax cutters rather than big spenders.

INC (February 9, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the carried interest tax break and how lobbying has kept it alive.

Investment News (February 8, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about the carried interest tax break and how lobbying has kept it alive.

San Francisco Chronicle (February 3, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about tech companies’ lobbying efforts to get Congress to pass an overseas tax holiday.

Huffington Post (January 27, 2012)

An op-ed by Edward Kleinbard ran about Mitt Romney’s tax returns. Kleinbard challenged a column in The Wall Street Journal arguing that Romney has incurred the burden of double taxation. “This argument is wrong, for multiple reasons,” Kleinbard wrote.

The Nation (January 24, 2012)

Numerous publications quoted Edward Kleinbard about Mitt Romney’s tax returns. “Is this candidate so financially or personally invested in certain tax positions that he cannot separate his own tax-saving strategies with what’s best for the country going forward?”

Bloomberg Businessweek (January 16, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard of was quoted about congressional leaders’ priorities when they reconvene on January 23.

The Wall Street Journal (January 13, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Green Bay Packers stock.

The Fiscal Times (January 9, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about corporate executives receiving enormous compensation through tax breaks.

The Wall Street Journal (January 6, 2012)

Edward Kleinbard was quoted about Yahoo’s decision to pursue a tax break known as a cash-rich split-off.