The purveyors of destruction are whining about the possibility they will be paying their taxes….

Defense companies are warning investors they could owe billions of dollars in additional taxes this April unless Congress repeals or defers a law that would tax research and development expenses.

Some say it will discourage American companies from making research-and-development investments at a time when the U.S. is increasingly competing with China both militarily and commercially.

“We firmly believe, and everybody we talk to in Washington understands, it is bad public policy,” Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes said Wednesday at a Barclays investment conference. “It discourages investment in innovation.”

Companies have been able to write off R&D expenses since 1954, but the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act requires companies to begin claiming R&D expenses on their taxes. The annual claims must be spread over a five-year period beginning in 2021. 

“The requirement for companies to capitalize and amortize R&D expenses amounts to a significant tax increase, which will negatively impact innovation,” the National Defense Industrial Association, a trade group that represents more than 1,500 large and small firms, said in a recent assessment of the defense industry.

https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2022/02/defense-firms-brace-billions-dollars-new-taxes-and-hope-congressional-relief/362494/

Seriously?

Since 9/11 the defense industry has generated $7.35 trillion in revenue.

Gone are the days when most of the defense budget was spent directly on soldiers. Since 9/11, war has become “modernized” — which means it’s fought with extremely expensive weapons bought from highly profitable private-sector companies.

Then there are those attractive packages for the industry’s CEOs…..

A Project On Government Oversight analysis of executive compensation at the top five Pentagon contractors – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon – found that the average compensation package of a CEO at one of these firms was approximately $21.5 million last year, according to the firms’ Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Total compensation is the sum of base salary, bonuses, stock awards, option awards, incentive compensation, deferred compensation (including changes in pension value), and all other compensation.

Sorry for the wandering diatribe but my point is that the taxpayer is basically subsidizing these packages…..

A Project On Government Oversight analysis of executive compensation at the top five Pentagon contractors – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon – found that the average compensation package of a CEO at one of these firms was approximately $21.5 million last year, according to the firms’ Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Total compensation is the sum of base salary, bonuses, stock awards, option awards, incentive compensation, deferred compensation (including changes in pension value), and all other compensation.

My point is if they can find the cash to pay these CEOs millions then they can find the  cash to pay their damn taxes….I have to then they should also.

CEO pay is obscene…..Taxpayers should not have to subsidize sky-high compensation levels for military contractor CEOs that perpetuate the profit motive for war.

When will enough be enough?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”