It's a problem for shareholders too: When the money is "stuck" ex-US and can't be brought back to the US to pay its shareholders.

If your money is in a shell that you cannot reach/touch, do you really have it?

And if you can't, why is it on the balance sheet as if it were cash that you could reach?

This is about money that was already outside the US. I'm not convinced that shuffling euro money around hurt the shareholders.

I can't admit I understand exactly what's going on in this case, but usually the story is that companies claim they have no US tax liability on revenue kept in a non-US subsidiary.

And the same companies stuff all the non-US revenue into a low-tax subsidiary, even when it's effectively earned in high-tax ex-US jurisdictions to avoid their taxes too.

> I can't admit I understand exactly what's going on in this case

That's exactly the problem! These are extremely complex situations where there usually doesn't exist any clear answer. If there did, large corporations almost certainly would not take these steps.

If there were clear laws, then taking these steps could be criminal tax fraud. Blame the regulators.

There's nothing stopping nations from writing clearer tax laws.

That would be a business or contractual obligation. There is nothing personal about that relationship.

There's nothing personal about my relationship with the tax authorities.

By phrasing it as excess taxes you've already begged the question. You could also phrase it as paying your share or pulling your weight.

Excess taxes, i.e. taxes not required by the law.

You've already linked the concept of excess to legality, definitionally. This is why you lack the ability to understand what a moral amount could be.

That's fair. Do you know what a moral amount would be?

I don't know, but I also doubt that anyone else really knows.

I assure you I don't know the exact number but I can imagine that non-zero moral amount exists.

That's fair, but the amount taxes Activision Blizzard are paying is non-zero. Are they doing wrong? If yes, how much should the pay?