ETHICS & EQUITY: The Costs of Good Tax Planning

High Tech Tops (HTT), a C corporation based in California, manufactures resilient cases and covers for laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Its sales and profits have more than doubled in each of the last five years (i.e., the company is growth-oriented and recession-proof). Its employees and contractors make above-average wages, so they make important contributions to the local individual income, sales, and property tax collections.

But the Federal and state corporate income tax is another story. Using legal and effective transfer pricing techniques, HTT shifts most of its operating profits to low-tax subsidiaries in Ireland and Singapore. Most of the firm's executives, engineers, and designers are based in the United States, but almost all of the sales operations are run from overseas. HTT's customers live around the world, but its tax liabilities are concentrated in the low-tax jurisdictions.

You are the president of the State University, across town from HTT's headquarters. The company sends hundreds of its employees to graduate and professional courses on your campus, and several of the corporate leaders are frequent guest speakers and adjunct lecturers in classes.

Still, the state income tax the company avoids through its transfer pricing plans would fund millions of dollars of campus growth and improvements for State University.

Should you become involved in the politics of the matter and lobby at your statehouse for tighter rules on transfer pricing? Such an action might result in tax increases that would improve your university's situation, but it also might force HTT to consider moving its headquarters to another location.