Re:The Story of Apple's $14B Tax Bill
by oconnor663 on Wednesday December 28, 2016 @11:47PM
(#13275683)
There are legitimate advantages to big integrated companies too. The graphite mine doesn't have to spend money hiring salespeople if it already knows who's buying all the graphite. Things like that depend on the nitty gritty details of the market you're in, so I think it doesn't make sense to try to legislate them if we can avoid it.
In an ideal situation Pencil B should be taxed less than Pencil A, as taxes would offset this overhead and incent this shift toward many small independent actors participating in an open marketplace.
In the real world, we have the opposite scenario. Companies are incentivized to become more like Pencil A, forming large vertical monopolies that minimize overhead and lock smaller players out. Even worse, once they're big enough to do business across national borders, taxation becomes mired in international law and cross-jurisdictional quagmires. In this laissez faire world, nations race to the bottom and compete for these businesses by offering places to incorporate at the lowest rates they can accommodate.