Vote for- Under the proposed 2025-26 Halting International Relocation of Employment (HIRE) Act (S. 2976) by OH-R Senator Moreno -U.S. companies that offshore American jobs face a punitive multi-layered financial framework. The legislation uses tax elimination, a new excise tax, and aggressive, uncapped penalties to make foreign outsourcing economically unviable.
The specific taxes and penalties outlined in the bill include:
The 25% "Outsourcing" Excise Tax
• The Tax: A flat 25% federal excise tax is levied on the gross value of all "outsourcing payments".
• What Counts as a Payment: It broadly applies to any premium, fee, royalty, or service charge paid to a foreign entity or foreign worker for labor or operations that ultimately benefit U.S. consumers (such as offshore IT support, customer call centers, or back-office processing).
• No Mixed Deductions: If a service covers both U.S. and international consumers, the tax is mathematically prorated to target the U.S. portion.
Elimination of Business Tax Deductions (Double Taxation)
• The Penalty: Ordinarily, labor and vendor costs are standard, deductible business expenses. The HIRE Act completely denies federal income tax deductions for both the outsourcing payments themselves and the 25% excise tax.
• The Result: This creates a severe "triple taxation" effect. Companies are taxed on the revenue used to pay foreign workers, taxed an extra 25% on the transfer itself, and forced to pay standard corporate income tax on those non-deductible amounts. Tax experts calculate this pushes the effective tax rate on offshored services close to 46%.
Severe Noncompliance Penalties
To prevent companies from hiding foreign labor costs, the bill implements a highly aggressive penalty structure for failing to report or pay the tax:
• 50% Monthly Uncapped Penalty: Standard failure-to-pay penalties under the IRS typically max out at a cumulative 25%. The HIRE Act dramatically escalates this penalty to 50% per month, with no cap.
• Corporate Certification: Corporate officers are required to formally report "outsourced income" on their tax returns, introducing potential personal and legal liabilities for corporate fraud if hidden.
Where the Penalty Money Goes
All revenue collected from the 25% excise tax and its monthly noncompliance penalties is legally sequestered into a newly formed Domestic Workforce Fund. Administered by the Department of Labor, these funds are directly allocated toward American middle-class apprenticeship programs, worker reskilling, and direct grants to local communities hardest hit by corporate offshoring.