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Stabenow wants to stop businesses from writing off moving expenses overseas

Senator Debbie Stabenow unveiled the "Bring Jobs Home Act" at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids Monday morning. GVSU student senate president Jack Iott is to her right.
Lindsey Smith
/
Michigan Radio
Senator Debbie Stabenow unveiled the "Bring Jobs Home Act" at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids Monday morning. GVSU student senate president Jack Iott is to her right.

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow will introduce a bill next week to prevent companies from getting tax write-offs for moving overseas.

Currently businesses can write off moving expenses on their taxes if they’re moving within or out of the country.  But no such break exists for businesses moving into the U.S.

“That makes absolutely no sense,” Stabenow said at a press conference Monday at Grand Valley State University.

“We need to make sure that there’s not some perverse incentive to pack up shop, take the business overseas and then ship the product back,” Stabenow said. “It’s really an insult to us as Americans to be paying for that.”

Stabenow’s bill would reverse the tax loophole; only offering to write off moving expenses for companies moving into the country.

Her “Bring Jobs Home Act” would also increase the tax credit by 20-percent. 

Stabenow says the measure has the potential to bring “hundreds of thousands of jobs” back to the U.S.

She also assumes the bill will be almost cost neutral since one tax break is ending as the other is introduced. “It’ll be pretty close to paying for itself,” Stabenow said.

Over time she says added jobs and business investments from the bill would be a “net positive” for the federal budget.

The bill is one of many changes the Obama Administration would like to see made to the federal tax code. Vice President Joe Biden mentioned it during a visit to American Seating in Grand Rapids earlier this year. Stabenow says this change was the most “commonsense” of the proposed changes.

Lindsey Smith helps lead the station'sAmplify Team. She previously served as Michigan Public's Morning News Editor, Investigative Reporter and West Michigan Reporter.