US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has once again singled out Ireland in a speech about tax reform as he vowed to bring “trillions of dollars” back into the US economy.
Trump made a speech to supporters in St Charles, Missouri last night about America’s current tax code has incentivised companies to leave the US to for countries with lower tax rates.
He said that he would “not name names” as to which countries have attracted US investment, but he quickly went on to single out Ireland.
He described how Apple, among other companies, were keeping billions of dollars offshore and said that countries like Ireland had long been incentivising businesses to do so.
“For too long our tax code has incentivised companies to leave our country in search of lower tax rates. It happens – many, many companies,” Trump told the crowd.
“They’re going to Ireland. They’re going all over. They’re going all over Asia but they’re stopping because they now want to take advantage of what’s happening and what we’re about to pass hopefully,” he said, referring to his administration’s new tax plan.
My administration rejects the offshoring model.
A number of Asian countries and Mexico were also mentioned throughout his speech.
“We’re going to bring back jobs and what we’ve had is a massive giveaway to foreign countries which encourage businesses to relocate offshore,” he said.
Trump was speaking ahead of a vote in the Senate today on tax reform.
If the vote passes, the Senate and the House of Representatives, who also published its own version of a tax reform plan on 16 November, will begin negotiations.
“We want a tax code that is simple and far and that’s for all Americans,” Trump said.
“The plan that Senators will be voting on this week, hopefully as soon as possible, closes the loopholes that corporations use to shift their profits to tax havens.”
It’s expected that Trump will sign off on the bill before the end of the year.
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