So tell me.. How do you handle this situation:

Acme Corp is having a fairly good year.

They sell equal amounts of goods and services in the US and Ireland.

However - the million dollars in sales in the US made far less profit than the million in sales in Ireland due to differences in costs.

So let's say that the company made $50K here in the US but $250K in Ireland. Would you tax Acme on the $250K it made in Ireland?

That's what you're saying when you say "tax them on everything".

Now, I grant you, companies can use a lot of accounting tricks. For example, Google, who has a motto of "do no evil" pay HUGE "licensing" fees to their Bermuda operations.

As far as their US tax return is concerned, it's an expense. But, to the Bermudans, it's income and taxed appropriate (which is, I believe in that country, hardly at all).

How would you *fairly* tackle this problem?

[Mind you this seems exacerbated by something I read yesterday on msnbc.com - US corporations add jobs MUCH slower than their foreign counterparts which is why our unemployment is much higher even though the economy is increasing. In other countries, they're not so quick to lay off - they'll even do 'make work' which makes the company look less efficient than the U.S. company but that has other ramifications]