Hundreds of Companies Seen Cutting Tax Bills by Sending Money Through Luxembourg

Re:Hundreds of Companies Seen Cutting Tax Bills by Sending M... by yequalsx on Wednesday November 05, 2014 @06:44PM (#8564959)

Given that you use the word "stealing" to refer to a govrernment's collection of taxes we probably won't agree on this issue. Taxes in the U.S. are at mult-decade lows. At least as of 2012. Taxation was around 15 - 16% GDP. The vast majority of federal taxation is not used to provide welfare to irresponsible and lazy people. Note that Social Security and Medicare are not entitlement programs.

Do you believe the U.S. is overtaxed? What percent of GDP should be taxed in order to fund government operations? Do you have specific programs in mind and, most importantly, do you know what percent of the budget is used for these programs you'd like to cut?

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Re:Hundreds of Companies Seen Cutting Tax Bills by Sending M... by lobotryas on Wednesday November 05, 2014 @10:25PM (#8565661)

I believe the middle class is overtaxed. 35% of my paycheck is taken by State and Federal taxes here in the Bay Area. I can't afford assets that would generate capital gains or a tax accountant for a clever tax avoidance scheme, so I'm paying all out.

This ruffles my feathers, so I'll be voting against any tax increases or bond measures (that may cause us to raise taxes later).

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Re:Hundreds of Companies Seen Cutting Tax Bills by Sending M... by f3llowtraveler on Wednesday November 05, 2014 @11:47PM (#8565825)

In Zug, Switzerland they have an excellent health care system with universal coverage. They also have very nice roads and a high standard of living, and low unemployment. They also have a strong defense based on armed neutrality, which kept them out of both world wars.

The income tax is 2%.

So if you are paying more than that, you are probably getting ripped off.

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Re:Hundreds of Companies Seen Cutting Tax Bills by Sending M... by mikeyouse on Thursday November 06, 2014 @01:38AM (#8566037)

Zug? Really? The town that has more companies than citizens? Something tells me that their city isn't run via personal income tax, something else tells me that their tax policies won't scale globally...

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/may/31/taxavoidance...

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Re:Hundreds of Companies Seen Cutting Tax Bills by Sending M... by f3llowtraveler on Thursday November 06, 2014 @07:52AM (#8566756)

You think 60% in taxes scales better than 2%?

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Re:Hundreds of Companies Seen Cutting Tax Bills by Sending M... by sschueller on Thursday November 06, 2014 @02:40AM (#8566130)

Most of those things are inherent to Switzerland not the Kanton.

Zug is very bad example. It has a 2015 deficit of 140 Million almost double of last year, they have to cut deep into their savings [1]. The Kanton is destroying itself and will be forced to raise taxes eventually. [2]

[1] http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schweiz/standard/Kanton-Zug-rech...

[2] http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schweiz/standard/Warum-Zug-und-S...

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Re:Hundreds of Companies Seen Cutting Tax Bills by Sending M... by tn13 on Thursday November 06, 2014 @03:34AM (#8566239)

Yes we disagree on the fact that taxation is stealing. Social Security and Medicare are one of the worst form of taxation.

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