4 ms·

I don't see any other way to simplify the tax code. If it isn't this way, we are further patching our tax codes as we go. Perhaps trying to simplify the tax co

• mike_hearn 11y ago
  There are ways to simplify tax systems, although "tax only revenues" is too simple. You can look at the Hong Kong tax system to see what simple looks like in this context (it's still not all that simple). The basic problem here is not actually the details of the tax codes in different countries. The root problem is entirely political. Companies like Google, Facebook and Apple have lots of money and their products are sold in every country. Lots of governments very much want to spend more money without raising taxes on their own citizens, which means they need to raise taxes on foreigners instead. Thus it turns into a game where countries try to either find creative readings of their own tax laws, or try to publicly shame big companies into giving up more money. But played to its conclusion this game is zero sum: for one country to win, another must lose by an equal amount (once all the profits are being taxed).