3 ms·

Pot kettle black? "...most of the UK’s big media organisations shelter assets and cash flows offshore. Top of the hypocrites in this respect is The Guardian. T

by mbgaxyz 11y ago

Pot kettle black? "...most of the UK’s big media organisations shelter assets and cash flows offshore. Top of the hypocrites in this respect is The Guardian. They put their assets in the Caymans, and they used a Luxembourg tax shell designed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers to funnel cash flows beyond the reach of HMRC. " "Other media organisations using offshore entities include the Huffington Post – whose journalists criticised Amazon for doing the same. The owners of the Mail, News UK and The Telegraph also have various offshore tax-efficient structures." http://order-order.com/2016/04/04/media-organisations-using-offshore-havens/ http://order-order.com/2016/04/04/media-organisations-using-...

stegosaurus 11y ago
The major issue with tax avoidance schemes is the effect on competition. It's kind of like the prisoner's dilemma. If no-one uses them, great. If everyone uses them, you have a lower effective tax rate and different policy outcomes to the ones expected, so there might be distortions. If others use them but you don't, you're at a competitive disadvantage. An analogy for the everyman - imagine that there's a loophole me and everyone else in my city could use as individuals to completely avoid tax. If I choose not to do so, I'm receiving, say, 20-30% less income than I would annually, putting me at a huge disadvantage when performing normal activities such as buying a home, say. I don't think that tax avoidance is immoral, I do think it should be fixed because of the distortion (favouring large businesses, which already generally have advantages due to scale). It's a bit like how one can be a marxist whilst also choosing to own private property. You can't exist without mimicing society to some extent.
- trump2016chalk 11y ago
  That's why a simpler, SUPER simple tax plan would be the best. Also why I believe that the smaller the government, the more competition and innovation there can be!
- chaosmonkey 11y ago
  The question is are these companies doing anything illegal?

by mbgaxyz 11y ago

stegosaurus 11y ago

The major issue with tax avoidance schemes is the effect on competition. It's kind of like the prisoner's dilemma. If no-one uses them, great. If everyone uses them, you have a lower effective tax rate and different policy outcomes to the ones expected, so there might be distortions. If others use them but you don't, you're at a competitive disadvantage. An analogy for the everyman - imagine that there's a loophole me and everyone else in my city could use as individuals to completely avoid tax. If I choose not to do so, I'm receiving, say, 20-30% less income than I would annually, putting me at a huge disadvantage when performing normal activities such as buying a home, say. I don't think that tax avoidance is immoral, I do think it should be fixed because of the distortion (favouring large businesses, which already generally have advantages due to scale). It's a bit like how one can be a marxist whilst also choosing to own private property. You can't exist without mimicing society to some extent.

trump2016chalk 11y ago
That's why a simpler, SUPER simple tax plan would be the best. Also why I believe that the smaller the government, the more competition and innovation there can be!
chaosmonkey 11y ago
The question is are these companies doing anything illegal?