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Re:The Hidden Wealth of Nations: Tax Havens by Gys on Friday October 02, 2015 @02:57AM (#10317090)
Countries like Ireland and Luxembourg are doing pretty well. So why is it wrong what they are doing ?

Also: once there is a minimum tax level it will only go up. And there will be a lot of governments pushing for that.

What the world really need is a mechanism to prevent governments from overspending. Now there is none.

Re:The Hidden Wealth of Nations: Tax Havens by Marazan on Friday October 02, 2015 @03:36AM (#10317195)
They are doing well by leeching off other countries. If the other countries adopted the tax policies of Ireland then there would be no point in a multi national creating a sham shell corporation in Ireland.
Re:The Hidden Wealth of Nations: Tax Havens by jazzyk on Friday October 02, 2015 @09:46AM (#10318463)
Why won't they (adopt), then? Ireland is not some third-world country with no public services, their government is probably more efficient, creating competition for other governments.
Re:The Hidden Wealth of Nations: Tax Havens by gamblor956 on Friday October 02, 2015 @01:08PM (#10319782)
Ireland is not more efficient a government; it was simply leeching off of the rest of Europe through a tax-evasive taxation regime that is now illegal. The gist of it was that companies could locate their European headquarters in Ireland for tax purposes, but then Ireland wouldn't actually tax the companies if they legally headquartered themselves in Bermuda. The latter part of this was the tax-evasive portion deemed illegal. Furthermore, Ireland didn't require the companies to actually move their management to Bermuda--it was sufficient to hold a board meeting once a year in Bermuda, and many of these companies were for practical purposes managed from London or New York.
Re:The Hidden Wealth of Nations: Tax Havens by charlesdm on Friday October 02, 2015 @08:35AM (#10318051)
If "high tax" countries have a genuine problem with this then they should reduce their corporate tax. Don't blame the solution, blame the problem.

If corporate tax is 30-35%, people are going to try and optimise as much as humanly possible. If corporate tax is between 10 and 20%, it becomes a lot less of an issue.

Re:The Hidden Wealth of Nations: Tax Havens by Marazan on Friday October 02, 2015 @05:40PM (#10321517)
Its has very little to do with the tax rate (although the low corp rate does help) it is to do with arbitraging tax law that effectively makes all profits in the EU bar those made in Ireland untaxed.

Just to be clear, it is not that all EU profits are getting taxed at Ireland rates, it is that almost all EU profits are not being taxed at all.

Re:The Hidden Wealth of Nations: Tax Havens by RobertoG on Friday October 02, 2015 @04:19AM (#10317315)
"What the world really need is a mechanism to prevent governments from overspending."

If governments run a supply the private sector has to run a deficit. Mathematics don't lie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectoral_balances