Re:Biggest companies pay the least tax, shows new research
by projektfu on Sunday April 05, 2020 @08:57PM
(#22790072)
Exactly. Why would you do all this fancy dealing if you can just keep the money as needed, and pay it out to your shareholders when you see fit? In the current system, you're penalized for recognizing profit in the US. Instead, you send it around the world and hold onto cash so that it doesn't get taxed. In this system, there's no incentive to do that. Foreign profits can be recognized where it makes sense, and payouts that benefit shareholders benefit the public.
If Apple has no reason to recognize profits in the US, I assume Matsushita has less reason to, so it doesn't really matter if foreign companies don't pay out to the US. If anything, it makes it more useful for the US government to prefer to give business to US companies.
I'd love to see how one would "close all the special loopholes" and force the companies to "pay taxes in the local state where business is done". This is exactly the problem. You reacted to the "ideology" of having a government share of the company, but your solution would require a much more invasive bureaucracy to accomplish the goal.
If Apple has no reason to recognize profits in the US, I assume Matsushita has less reason to, so it doesn't really matter if foreign companies don't pay out to the US. If anything, it makes it more useful for the US government to prefer to give business to US companies.
I'd love to see how one would "close all the special loopholes" and force the companies to "pay taxes in the local state where business is done". This is exactly the problem. You reacted to the "ideology" of having a government share of the company, but your solution would require a much more invasive bureaucracy to accomplish the goal.