WASHINGTON - A group of technology heavyweights, including chiefs of IBM and Motorola Inc enlisted a former Clinton administration economist to beat back President Barack Obama's plan to boost some taxes on overseas profits.



Shapiro acknowledged his job loss estimates don't correspond to Obama's proposal, because the report examines elimination of tax deferral of foreign income, while Obama's plan is a modified version of that.

"The direction of the effect is very clear: it would significantly reduce the effective post tax earnings from foreign operations and in so doing would have these so-called adverse effects," which include job losses in the United States, Shapiro told Reuters.


"Their numbers are just way out there," said Rosanne Altshuler, an economist at the Brookings-Urban Institute's Tax Policy Institute.








Altshuler said she doubts the Obama administration's argument that his tax changes will save or create jobs, though and said "it is possible that it could decrease jobs."



"The reality now is that companies pay very little in U.S. taxes," the senior Obama administration official said.
