3 ms·

Tax evasion by American Tech companies.

by british_india 10y ago

garrettheaver 10y ago
Follow baseless political dogma much?
- british_india 10y ago
  Never heard of the Dutch-Irish sandwich? All about tax evasion. Common knowledge. Your comment is ridiculous, Garrett.
tonyedgecombe 10y ago
If it was that much of a problem for America they could change their rules.
- adventured 10y ago
  It's pretty likely the US will lower its corporate tax rate in the next decade to counter the big corporations that keep leaving. Most of Ireland's pharma industry consists of American-owned corporations that fled to Ireland solely for low corporate tax purposes. If you adjust the US corporate tax rate down, they can just as easily move back. Hillary is almost without question going to win the election. She has proclaimed that her husband would have a star role in regards to improving the economy. One of Bill's core economic ideas is to flatten the US corporate tax rate - lower the rate and remove various subsidies and loopholes - to make the US far more competitive with the rest of the world. If the US matches Western Europe on corporate tax rates - Europe has the lowest corporate tax rates of any major economic region - it'll begin pulling very large amounts of capital and major corporations away from everyone else.
- british_india 10y ago
  If Ireland wishes to make themselves a tax haven, then the US has very little influence over that. But for anyone to claim that Ireland would experience this sort of growth without being the go-to tax avoidance location for the likes of Google, Apple, Facebook and fill in the blank--is ridiculous on its face. Through the phenomenon of "income stripping" these tech companies essentially gift their IP to their Irish subsidiaries and then the subsidiary charges the parent company to use that IP, thereby stripping the parent company's earnings from the US--where the companies are actually located--to these tax havens. In case you've been living under a rock you would know that Facebook has been fighting a lawsuit from the US treasury since 2010 over this exact situation.
rmc 10y ago
Lots of those tech companies employ a lot of local people. Tens of thousands of people.
- branchless 10y ago
  And your point is? That work still needs doing, corporate profits are sky high. They can pay the tax and pay the workers. Also much of the money passing through Ireland is simply for tax evasion not because actual business is taking place there. It's little more than a tax haven. Here is an example of all those jobs created: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Sandwich_(tax_avoidance) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Sandwich_(tax_avoidance)
  - s_dev 10y ago
    Dutch Sandwich and Double Irish has been discontinued. It will be completely finished by 2020. To suggest it's still going in full swing is a little disingenuous as the info by itself is a little outdated. That applies to a limited number of companies. I think his point was that Ireland tends to tax the workers rather than the companies. So those companies are still a benefit to the country.
    - branchless 10y ago
      Yes but they are allowing those companies to avoid tax in the countries where the labour is being done. Lucky for them the UK is also getting desperate and instead of having it's own work is going to "attract" companies with lower corporation tax. Race you to the bottom.
      - s_dev 10y ago
        The Irish economy was carefully constructed around the 12.5% rate for decades -- the UK is foolish if it thinks this new 15% rate will work for it and can just copy it to emulate the success Ireland has seen from its own rate. The low rate works if you're a small economy with access to a much larger economy. With Brexit looming and given the size of the UK it doesn't fit either of these important criteria for the strategy to work. I think Osborne lowered the rate the prevent an exodus of companies from the UK more than attract others to it.
CalRobert 10y ago
"british_india" Is there the possibility of some bias there?

Tax evasion by American Tech companies.

garrettheaver 10y ago

Follow baseless political dogma much?

british_india 10y ago
Never heard of the Dutch-Irish sandwich? All about tax evasion. Common knowledge. Your comment is ridiculous, Garrett.

tonyedgecombe 10y ago

If it was that much of a problem for America they could change their rules.

adventured 10y ago
It's pretty likely the US will lower its corporate tax rate in the next decade to counter the big corporations that keep leaving. Most of Ireland's pharma industry consists of American-owned corporations that fled to Ireland solely for low corporate tax purposes. If you adjust the US corporate tax rate down, they can just as easily move back. Hillary is almost without question going to win the election. She has proclaimed that her husband would have a star role in regards to improving the economy. One of Bill's core economic ideas is to flatten the US corporate tax rate - lower the rate and remove various subsidies and loopholes - to make the US far more competitive with the rest of the world. If the US matches Western Europe on corporate tax rates - Europe has the lowest corporate tax rates of any major economic region - it'll begin pulling very large amounts of capital and major corporations away from everyone else.
british_india 10y ago
If Ireland wishes to make themselves a tax haven, then the US has very little influence over that. But for anyone to claim that Ireland would experience this sort of growth without being the go-to tax avoidance location for the likes of Google, Apple, Facebook and fill in the blank--is ridiculous on its face. Through the phenomenon of "income stripping" these tech companies essentially gift their IP to their Irish subsidiaries and then the subsidiary charges the parent company to use that IP, thereby stripping the parent company's earnings from the US--where the companies are actually located--to these tax havens. In case you've been living under a rock you would know that Facebook has been fighting a lawsuit from the US treasury since 2010 over this exact situation.

rmc 10y ago

Lots of those tech companies employ a lot of local people. Tens of thousands of people.

branchless 10y ago
And your point is? That work still needs doing, corporate profits are sky high. They can pay the tax and pay the workers. Also much of the money passing through Ireland is simply for tax evasion not because actual business is taking place there. It's little more than a tax haven. Here is an example of all those jobs created: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Sandwich_(tax_avoidance) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Sandwich_(tax_avoidance)
- s_dev 10y ago
  Dutch Sandwich and Double Irish has been discontinued. It will be completely finished by 2020. To suggest it's still going in full swing is a little disingenuous as the info by itself is a little outdated. That applies to a limited number of companies. I think his point was that Ireland tends to tax the workers rather than the companies. So those companies are still a benefit to the country.
  - branchless 10y ago
    Yes but they are allowing those companies to avoid tax in the countries where the labour is being done. Lucky for them the UK is also getting desperate and instead of having it's own work is going to "attract" companies with lower corporation tax. Race you to the bottom.
    - s_dev 10y ago
      The Irish economy was carefully constructed around the 12.5% rate for decades -- the UK is foolish if it thinks this new 15% rate will work for it and can just copy it to emulate the success Ireland has seen from its own rate. The low rate works if you're a small economy with access to a much larger economy. With Brexit looming and given the size of the UK it doesn't fit either of these important criteria for the strategy to work. I think Osborne lowered the rate the prevent an exodus of companies from the UK more than attract others to it.

CalRobert 10y ago

"british_india" Is there the possibility of some bias there?