Re:The Story of Apple's $14B Tax Bill
by bluecalm on Tuesday December 20, 2016 @04:02PM
(#13223937)
Then introduce a tax they will pay. Otherwise you will always be in the business of "how much that investment strategy/brand/trips" to Bermuda were really worth. It's the game that can't be won. It's frustrating to me that this point is missed. I suspect it's because people who write tax law rarely has any meaningful business experience and little understanding of economic reality.
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Re:The Story of Apple's $14B Tax Bill
by Maarten88 on Tuesday December 20, 2016 @05:05PM
(#13224582)
> It's the game that can't be won.
Only as long as countries and politicians don't really try you are right. Giving up on trying to make corporations pay taxes they should pay because "you can't win" seems like a very weak way to handle this.
Corporations will immediately start discussing income tax or VAT and invent avoidance schemes on that, playing countries against each other, and that game also can't be won. There's no end.
The big economic regions like EU and US should completely stop accepting all these transfer pricing and IP deals, and tax these multinational companies on something that is based on the profit that they report to their shareholders, divided by the approximate regional share of the company's total market.