Re:David Rockefeller has died
by elastic_church on Monday March 20, 2017 @01:50PM
(#13916169)
The high tax nations should figure out how to fund themselves more competitively. Many low tax countries have democratically elected representatives that looked at their budget and realized "no we dont need to fund roads and schools by taking a piece of other peoples productivity". Despite any pressure from high tax nations they simply realized they dont need it.
For my own curiosity could you point out a single low tax country that has well maintained infrastructure?
Estonia may be a decent example here. Not every tax is low, but corporate income tax is 0% and personal income tax is a flat 20%. However lots of infrastructure upgrades have been done with EU money. So the tax is still there, just not being paid by the locals.
That definitely doesn't fit the criteria of not taking pieces of other people's productivity to fund roads and schools that the parent post mentioned. I'd be interested in hearing of an alternative model to taxes that's actually worked out. Every other example I've seen has fallen to the tragedy of the Commons rather than businesses stepping up and handling common goods well
Re:David Rockefeller has died
by elastic_church on Monday March 20, 2017 @04:42PM
(#13917496)
Well I am more so talking about income taxes, although I didn't specify that is what this thread was about beforehand. Many places have a passive tax on some aspect, such as tourism, have high fees for certain businesses such as incorporation and licensing fees, and have also nationalized a particular industry.
In any case, Cayman's infrastructure was decent compared to other neighboring islands and countries. Since you asked.
Indeed many countries are selling incorporation services to stuff government coffers.
The point is that where there is a will there is a way for a governing institution to fund itself, and it by no means offers any solution for countries that are overbudget and uncompetitive in this front.
Yes, it is good for moving tangible products around as you have a predictable base of regulations around them.
Moving services around gets iffy. Seen way too many companies use that to pack away profits in low tax nations while maintaining a persistent loss in "high" tax nations. This by spinning up a service company that bills for unspecified services.
And moving workers around only really work when dealing with non-industrial jobs, or all that comes out of it is "social dumping".
But try to explain that to 20-something with freshly minted degrees, laptops and credit cards.