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I'm an energy investor and get to work with tax advisors and lawyers very often in order to maximise tax structures and cash repatriation. Everything we do is a
by antr 10y ago
I'm an energy investor and get to work with tax advisors and lawyers very often in order to maximise tax structures and cash repatriation. Everything we do is approved by tax authorities and positively seen by our shareholders. I agree to a certain extent with you that companies are acting rationally. I can assure you it's my responsibility to make the best use of these tools.
However, the direct and indirect pressure large companies exert on governments to promote/create these loopholes is absurd. I recently went to a latin american country which is promoting foreign investment. Guess what tools they are using to promote such FDI? Correct, tax credits, tax agreements with tax heavens, zero withholding taxes on dividends, etc. I won't go into more detail, but I've seen obscene (but legal) tax structures were little-to-no corporate taxes nor capital gains taxes have been paid in +billion euro transactions.
IMHO, this is unfair to everyday citizens. Citizens end up taking the burden of supporting the govt budget, at the expense of higher tax rates.
Unfortunately in the EU, there is very little interest from countries like The Netherlands, Ireland, and Luxembourg in implementing a common fiscal policy, with no loopholes, as this would considerably damage their "competitive" economies.
- ianai 10y agoOn the other hand, it's an incentive for countries to do what it takes to increase the wages of their citizens. Ie minimum wage laws.
- simonh 10y agoOk, but that's not tax avoidance because the companies are absolutely following government rules. Given the choice of having billions of dollars of investment in their country and thousands of jobs but no corporate tax; or no investment and no jobs and no tax, those governments are making a rational choice. The real problem comes when these deals disadvantage local businesses competing with the big foreign conglomerates. But often these deals are really only necessary because the government has set up ridiculously high trade barriers, so the only way to get investment is with ludicrously generous deals. Brazil seems to be a classic example of this. The entire economic system is tangled mess of massive market distortions.
- antr 10y agowho said tax avoidance?
- gozur88 10y ago>Ok, but that's not tax avoidance because the companies are absolutely following government rules. You're mixing up terms here. Tax avoidance is minimizing your tax bill within the law. Tax evasion is what you do when you pay less tax than your legal obligation.
- ptaipale 10y agoTax avoidance is by definition absolutely following government rules.
- nickik 10y agoThat is why many people have often called for tax simplification. The Flat Tax proposal (and for you progressives, yes we can make it progressive but that not the point) is designed to be as simple as possible and to provide few loopholes. This is not the end all solution but it at least makes everything far, far simpler.
- gozur88 10y agoFlat taxes address the wrong problem. It's easy enough for individuals and corporations to look up their tax in a table once gross income (or profit) is determined. The complication is determining what counts as income, and flat tax schemes don't do anything to address that complication, particularly for corporations. Most corporate tax avoidance strategies take advantage of laws intended to prevent different countries from taxing the same dollar of profit, and those rules will still exist in any reasonable tax structure.
- paulddraper 10y agoThere's also Fair Tax, which is not income, but rather sales, which are typically simpler.