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Many Tech Executives Would Pay Taxes to Compensate for Offshoring
SAN FRANCISCO -- Getting to the heart of the heated political debate on offshoring, results of a national survey indicate a surprising willingness among U.S. technology executives to pay higher taxes to compensate for jobs they send offshore.Just over 40% of the executive-level Information Technology "decision makers" who participated in a survey by CNET News.com and Harris Interactive agree with the proposition that companies should be required to pay a "per-head" levy for every position sent to another country, while 39% oppose it. Despite the virtually even split among executives on this question, the number of supporters is significant in light of industry's historical disdain for taxes and government restrictions on business in general.In addition to executives, mid-level and professional staff members with involvement in their company's IT decisions were surveyed. Among all respondents, the poll suggests that companies would be willing to help pay for improvements in the quality of American education and worker retraining to help the United States maintain its competitive edge in technology. Nearly 30% of the nearly 500 respondents agree that all businesses should help. Another 34% agree but said it was the particular responsibility of the companies that outsource. Nearly 37% oppose the idea.Economists and others interviewed by the CNET News.com editorial team express surprise that so many executives would accept an offshoring tax, especially because the reason often cited for foreign outsourcing is saving money. Some suggest that the poll results reflect a new sensitivity toward the controversial practice, which has been met with vocal opposition by critics who say companies are callously replacing American jobs with cheap labor overseas."The export of American high-tech work has become such an issue in the presidential campaign, we decided to tackle it head-on in our survey and special report," says Charles Cooper, executive editor of CNET News.com. "Both the Bush and Kerry camps have danced around the issue of imposing new taxes on businesses to pay for worker training or benefits. However, the poll findings suggest that Corporate America may be more receptive than the professional politicians might have assumed."Other survey findings include:IT decision makers are clearly split over the proper role of government in offshore outsourcing. More than 45% believe Uncle Sam should not play any direct role, while nearly 47% believe the government should protect U.S. jobs from moving outside the country.Respondents do not necessarily believe that it was good for the United States: 63% indicated the export of technology jobs threatens the long-term technology leadership of the United States, while a little more than 22% disagreed and 15% had no opinion.Companies accept global outsourcing as a new reality. Nearly 54% of IT decision makers agree that offshore outsourcing is a permanent fixture in the high-tech landscape. Only 19% believe it is a passing phenomenon, while 27% have no opinion.The vast majority of IT decision makers (81%) indicate that their companies would maintain the amount of work they outsource outside the country in the next 12 months. Another 3% indicated that their companies intend to do more outsourcing, while only 5% plan to do less. The remainder are uncertain.Half agreed that the practice of offshore outsourcing is a natural part of the evolution of a capitalistic society while about 29% disagree. The rest (21%) were undecided.More than 65% believe that consumers in other countries gain benefits from offshore outsourcing while 16% disagree. The rest are undecided.CNET News.com is a property of CNET Networks Inc.Harris Interactive is a worldwide market research and consulting firm best known for The Harris Poll."