Re:Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook
by improbable22 on Wednesday November 08, 2017 @11:09AM
(#15653778)
Yes that's exactly what I'm implying.
We tax the money going from a human being into the corporation (VAT etc). And we tax the money coming out (Payroll etc).
The idea that we must tax the company's profits too (if they made any) is what seems strange to me. Because it depends then on defining which bit of a multinational made the profit, and there's no good way to do this. All it seems to do is encourage complicated schemes which the little guys can't afford. And I don't see the advantage over just taxing both ends of the pipe.
I know there are economists who disagree with me, and I don't understand their reasons. But all I'm seeing in the letter (and this thread) is personification, saying "the pipe must pay his share!" but the pipe isn't a person.
that's already happening. Unless you're implying increasing consumption tax (VATS, GST etc), or higher income tax for individuals (payroll tax, capital gains tax etc).
The tax that's "missing" (read: dodged) is corporate income tax - which is a tax on the profits a corporation makes. But if you don't make any profits (read: hide profits using legal schemes), then what _do_ you tax?
To prevent tax-havens, you'd need to impose sanctions against doing business with any entity that is incorporated in said tax haven. But that's a nuclear option, which can cause damage beyond just stopping tax dodge (like harming the citizen of the tax-haven country, since they now cannot import food, for example).