The Wall Street Journal noted last week that American shareholders will lose tens of billions of dollars in investment income from their stock holdings in Silicon Valley companies like Google and Apple if several European Union sham lawsuits prevail.
The EU’s courts outrageously ruled this week that Apple shareholders owe Europe 13.5 billion euros in back taxes because the company took advantage of Ireland’s low 12.5% tax rate. The EU “competition chief” declared that this sham court decision “is a big win for European citizens and tax justice.” No, it’s a big win for big government.
Google shareholders are now forced to pay the EU $2.7 billion because its search engine has become dominant in the European market. The European search engines are so inferior that nobody wants to use them. So, sue American companies.
Let’s be clear here: The EU laggards are simply green with envy. The Eurozone has been crushed by American tech dominance. No company in socialist Europe has found a way to compete with American innovation at Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and so on. Since they can’t compete, they invent sore-loser lawsuits.
The bigger issue is why the Biden administration isn’t defending American companies from European extortion. These tech lawsuits are a tax on American knowhow and innovation. Instead of defending American shareholders from the EU predators, the Biden regulators give legitimacy to the foreign courts. How can the U.S. government complain against specious antitrust attacks against Google and Apple when our own regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department are bringing copycat lawsuits against our tech giants in U.S. courts?
The capricious fine against Google is a result of an American company shopping around the globe to find the lowest tax climate (Ireland) for doing business. This is illegal? Our corporate tax rate thanks to the Trump tax cut is now 21%, down from 35% under former President Barack Obama. But President Joe Biden and now presidential candidate Kamala Harris want to raise it back up to 28% or more. That only encourages more jobs and investment to move offshore. Did I mention that Ireland’s rate is just 12.5%?
Instead of lowering the rates here, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wants to force Ireland and other low-tax countries to raise their rates to a global minimum tax of 15% or more.
Similarly, antitrust lawsuits from Europe and Washington aimed at American tech companies are spurious because nearly every price for tech services — from cellphones to drone deliveries to internet searches to fiber optic hookups — has been falling. How are consumers getting gouged if they keep paying less?
I often don’t like the politics of Big Tech. But the end result of what Washington is doing to penalize American tech giants for building a better mousetrap is to move the high-tech hubs of the world — from Silicon Valley to Austin to Boston to Miami — to competitor nations. That’s a good way to lose jobs and put America last.
Stephen Moore is a cofounder of Unleash Prosperity. He is also an economic advisor to the Trump campaign.
This post was originally published on here
