America is a nation of 50 states? No. America is a State with 50 nations.
Each of those nations has its fiscal policies and rules. Forty-five states in America charge a Sales Tax. Colorado has the lowest State Sales Tax at 2.9%, California has the highest States Sales Tax at 7.25%. The State with the highest tax burden to the taxpayer is New York which charges a total tax of 12.79%. The lowest tax burden State is Alaska.
These tax rates that differ from state to state creates opportunities for legislation to be created by US State Houses of Assemblies to target and attract businesses to their state. Take Delaware, 66.8% of all Fortune 500 companies incorporate in Delarewe. Google and Coca-Cola are incorporated in Delaware, why? First, you don’t need to be resident in Delaware to incorporate a corporation in the State. Delaware will also not impose a state tax if you do not conduct business in the state.
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Texas Vs California
The former Governor of Texas, Rick Perry conducted many “Business Recruitment Trips” to the State of California to lure jobs to Texas. Texas State ran radio ads in California to market Texas as a business destination. Chuck DeVore of the Texas Public Policy Foundation states, “job growth has been running 80% stronger in low tax states than in high tax states since the passage of the tax cuts Act of 2017. For California, the lost opportunity adds up to 153,000 positions since December 2017.” Elon Musk and Joe Rogan have all left California and moved to Texas. Apple, the largest company in America by capitalization is building a new campus in Austin Texas.
In 2020, For the first time, California has posted a population loss.
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What about nations?
The data is not so direct when looking at nations.
Companies make decisions based on maximizing shareholder return on equity. If taxes are higher in one nation, then the cash will flow from that nation to another. When the US passed the tax cut legislation in 2017, it eliminated the tax obligation on repatriation of foreign profits. In response, more than $1 trillion flowed from foreign subsidiaries to their US HQ. These funds flowed from low-tax nations of Bermuda, Netherlands, and Ireland, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Biden Tax Proposal
President Biden seeks to raise taxes on American taxpayers to pay for a $3 trillion infrastructure plan. In summary, the plan will raise the corporate income tax from 21% to 28%. With a 15% corporate global tax on companies posting incomes above $100 million.
President Biden knows that when taxes are hiked, American business will simply leave the profits earned outside the tax jurisdiction of the United States, e.g., Exxon Mobil will simply leave the cash it makes from the Nigerian Qua Iboe oil fields in banks in Ireland, rather than send them to banks in the US.
Hence the plan B for Biden is a global minimum tax that will tax all companies including US companies that do business globally. The Biden administration’s plan is simple, if the global tax equals or is less than what US companies pay in Ireland, then they will simply repatriate that cash back to the US and pay a lower tax.
However there is one problem, why will Indonesia or Ireland tax ExxonMobil and lose revenues like California? They will not, thus Ireland will become the new Texas, as more American firms will site “international operations” HQ in Ireland, book profits, and accumulate cash offshore.
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What should Nigeria do?
Nigeria should create a fiscal “Delaware” where any foreign incorporated company can open an office and pay zero taxes on imported capital, no need to be present in Nigeria. Nigeria can create and offer special $Eurobonds targeting liquidity. ExxonMobil can invest her crude oil sales JV profits with NNPC in $ denominated bonds held by Nigerian banks, shielded and excluded from all taxes and mandates from the CBN.
There will be American firms seeking to set up a manufacturing base outside the American continent (GE is already in Calabar). How about making that State a Special Economic Zone for only US business, no taxes, no import duties, no levies? What about the Yaba IT cluster? Mack Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey were also in Yaba, can Nigeria create an IT economic zone for services? China is far away and, in conflict with America’s geopolitical interest, Vietnam and the other Asian tigers have seen their wages rise, they are becoming uncompetitive in wage terms.
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Nigeria still has low wages and an English-speaking young population. This is a good time to fiscally reform. It will not be easy, Nigeria must change many rules, it must be more open, more transparent, and protective of international property rights, but this is an opportunity.
This is economic fiscal discipline for Nigeria economy to pick up. Hope the Buhari Administration can take to this. Thank you.
That’s strategic planning and it’s about good leadership by Joe Biden for America. What is Nigeria’s interest and who is driving it?