Here come the New Protectionists …

U.S. senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is fed up with the American call center industry getting offshored to various low-rent districts around the world, and he wants to impose a 25-cents-per-call “fee” on companies that transfer calls from U.S. customers to foreign countries. Plus, make them tell the customer when a call is being transferred. Plus, of course, keep all the records of which calls go where and submit them to Uncle Sam. more

IRS Commish Doug Shulman was on form today. In remarks to the American Payroll Association and the American Accounts Payable Association, he offered some thoughts on a topic that’s never far from my mind: the symbiosis between tax and technology.

Setting his remarks in the context of a looming massive expansion of information reporting requirements that will have a huge impact on small businesses (see my earlier post), Shulman developed his theme of “don’t worry, tech will save us” by tracing a history of tax technology back to the 1970s and the end of the punch card era. In 1971, he said, the IRS received 360 million information documents, enough to fill more than 35 boxcars. But technology advances were already on the march; 70 million of those documents were submitted on magnetic tape. more

Sure, keeping tax liabilities to a minimum is important, but when it comes right down to it, the crucial thing is making sure the returns are timely and accurate. That’s according to 41 percent of respondents in a Grant Thornton survey of CFOs and senior comptrollers released today. more

Tom Henschke, president of the SMC Business Councils, a Pennsylvania-based network that provides support for small and midsize businesses, on a little-known provision in the health care reform bill that will massively expand the requirements for businesses to file 1099-Misc forms, starting in 2012:

“Just with business travel, it would include hotels, rental cars. Phone service: 1099. Computer service: 1099. Whoever does your postage meter: 1099. You do a little advertising, Yellow Pages: 1099. Your landlord: 1099. You might as well just keep them in your pocket and hand them out as you go around every day.”

Henschke’s organization was among the first to call attention to the provision, which requires a 1099 for all business purchases and payments above $600 per calendar year, according to a report from CNNMoney.com. ###

Which country imposes the highest taxes on corporations?

Hard to say. Assessing the relative tax competitiveness of different countries is an extraordinarily tricky task, and I’m always amazed at how often people — even people who should know better — try to sweep the difficulties under the rug of statutory maximum rates. more