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Companies are already taxed on their profits. The hard question is determining what is a profit and where it is located. And share buybacks are returning capi
by khuey 10y ago
Companies are already taxed on their profits. The hard question is determining what is a profit and where it is located.
And share buybacks are returning capital to the owners of the business, which is why they invested in it in the first place. The owners can then make their own choices about how to allocate capital productively.
- noir-york 10y ago> Companies are already taxed on their profits In theory. We are having this debate because in practice some are taxed at 20% and others practically nil. I'm arguing for no negotiated tax arrangements, indeed I have been giving thought to a progressive tax regime for companies. That would be interesting to evaluate. > And share buybacks are returning capital to the owners of the business Which is why I am not sure buy backs should be taxed. Either a company invests its earnings, or else it returns them to shareholders who can decide to identify growth opportunities, as you suggest.
- makomk 10y agoCompanies like Apple achieved a tax rate of almost zero by exploiting the definition of "profits" to argue that they didn't earn more than a trivial amount of profits in any of the countries they operated in. The definition is the problem here.