|
 Murdoch also said U.S. President Barack Obama was penalizing
businesses by cracking down on so-called "profit shifting" by major
corporations to countries with lighter tax regimes, a technique that
is also in the sights of the G20.
"My blood pressure goes up when I think of the number of local,
state and federal regulations we have in our lives today," Murdoch
told a meeting of the Business 20 leaders in Sydney, a day after his
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc made an audacious $80 billion offer for
Time Warner Inc.
"That is just in America. Don't even get me started on the European
Union."
The B20 was set up in 2010 to give policy recommendations on behalf
of the international business community to the G20. Business leaders
meeting here are looking to influence the outcome of the G20 Leaders
Summit in Brisbane in November.
"I believe that business does have a role in shaping public policy,
mainly in helping limit the size and scope of government," Murdoch
said.
"For businesses large and small, there's simply too much red tape,
too many subservient politicians stifling economic growth and
entrepreneurism."
Along with targeting growth of 2 percent above trend over the next 5
years, the G20 is tackling corporate "profit shifting", which has
allowed multinationals such as Starbucks Corp, Google Inc, Apple Inc
and Amazon.com Inc to avoid paying taxes.
G20 finance ministers in February endorsed a set of common standards
for sharing bank account information across borders, with automatic
exchange of information among G20 members to take effect by the end
of 2015.
[to top of second column] |
Obama, meanwhile, earlier this year proposed tightening restrictions
on U.S. multinationals that shift their tax domiciles abroad in his
2015 budget. Obama wants to raise the minimum level of foreign
ownership in a newly inverted holding company to 50 percent from
about 20 percent, making the deals more difficult to carry out.
"Do we really expect overseas companies to voluntarily bring profits
back to be taxed at 35 to 40 percent in the United States, when the
corporate tax rate in Ireland is 12.5 percent?" Murdoch said. "This
is not the way to achieve economic growth."
Murdoch did not refer to the Time Warner bid, which was rejected by
the U.S. conglomerate whose assets include the HBO cable channel and
the Warner Bros movie studio.
(Editing by Stephen Coates)
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