Re:Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
by gozur88 on Thursday June 30, 2016 @04:09PM
(#12011279)
>Ok, but that's not tax avoidance because the companies are absolutely following government rules.
You're mixing up terms here. Tax avoidance is minimizing your tax bill within the law. Tax evasion is what you do when you pay less tax than your legal obligation.
The real problem comes when these deals disadvantage local businesses competing with the big foreign conglomerates. But often these deals are really only necessary because the government has set up ridiculously high trade barriers, so the only way to get investment is with ludicrously generous deals. Brazil seems to be a classic example of this. The entire economic system is tangled mess of massive market distortions.