Originally posted by: knightc2
Originally posted by: babylon5
Hailburton (soon no longer pay US tax), private contractors ripping off taxpayers love more wars.
Let me correct your statement. Halliburton will NOT be exempt from US taxes. They are moving their headquarters to Dubai which has a much more favorable tax system than our current system. This is a business decision to save them some money. This will not affect any of the taxes that Halliburton pays for work they do in the US or for work they do overseas that they have been contracted to do for the US government. Halliburton, however, will not have to pay US taxes on services they provide in other countries. They do a lot of work in Russia, Pakistan, etc. that is currently subject to US tax.
Moving their headquarters to a 'tax friendly' nation will allow them to save on taxes paid for services provided outside of the United States. This makes perfect sense from a business standpoint and I do not blame their board of directors for doing this. This is the same reason that Daimler-Chrysler moved their HQ to Germany from Detroit. This is purely a business decision.
This is not the best decision for the US government as they will lose some tax revenue, but until they change the current tax code you will see more business follow suit. Halliburton (and all other businesses) is in business to make money. They do have to answer to their board of directors and ultimately the stock holders and this makes perfect sense from a business point of view. Like it or not this is not illegal and will likely continue for those businesses that do much business overseas.