In Obama's budget, it's techies vs. taxes

There's a frequent line in President Obama's speeches that makes every U.S. tech executive cringe: his vow to cut tax breaks for "companies that ship our jobs overseas."

Obama's brushing over some details here. The U.S. tax code does not literally give a company a tax break every time it moves a job offshore. But it does allow companies to defer paying taxes on their overseas profits, so long as the money remains invested outside the U.S. Obama has vowed to change this part of the law, and for months tech CEOs have been coming through Washington howling about the dire consequences of raising such taxes on multinationals. They've made some inroads with the administration, but based on what's in the president's 2011 budget released last week, Silicon Valley and DC are far from done battling over taxes. The details are buried in the budget on page 161, Table S-8 under the heading "Reform the U.S. international tax system." If the proposed changes go through, the administration estimates it will bring in $122.2 billion in added tax revenue. As far as the administration is concerned, the added money will not only help close the gaping deficit, but stop U.S. companies from ducking out of domestic taxes by shopping around for which country has the best tax rate.