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Absolute complete nonsense. Not only a misunderstanding of the situation but a crazy and completely incorrect understanding of EEC principles. This particular

Absolute complete nonsense. Not only a misunderstanding of the situation but a crazy and completely incorrect understanding of EEC principles. This particular problem aside, for there are reasonable nuances from the EUs POV. Your statment: > we just can't accept that it's enough to open your headquarters in Luxembourg to only pay Luxembourg corporate taxes Yes. We can. That is quite literally the point of being in the EEC and isn't at all the nuance of the issue Amazon and Ireland have encountered and not something even remotely in question by this report. Complete misrepresentation. You only pay appropriate taxes in the nation state in which you HQ. This allows poorer countries to compete with richer countries, and allows wealth to "drain" into poorer countries whilst providing cheaper services to the richer ones.

oblio 9y ago
> This allows poorer countries to compete with richer countries. Yes, the poor, starving Grand Duchy of Luxembourg :D
- easytiger 9y ago
  Yes, the appointed capital of The EU
  - toyg 9y ago
    What? The most central EU institutions are based in Bruxelles, Belgium. The EU Parliament also spends half the time in Strasbourg, France. Only the Court of Justice is in Luxembourg. There is no "appointed capital". Bruxelles is the closest thing in practical terms, but the location of the institutions it hosts was an early choice that has since been slowly rejected. All new EU authorities are "dispersed" elsewhere, and there is talk of moving the Parliament to Strasbourg full-time, now that it's pretty clear that the French are nowhere as dominant in European institutions as originally feared.
    - easytiger 9y ago
      capital being slang for "institutional seat"
      - toyg 9y ago
        You seem to be confused. One could argue that Bruxelles is such “capital”, but definitely not Luxembourg. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_seats_of_the_European_Union https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_seats_of_the_E...
        easytiger 9y ago
        capital being slang for "institutional seat" From your own link: > The seven institutions of the European Union (EU) are seated in four different cities, viz. Brussels, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, rather than being concentrated in a single capital city.
        toyg 9y ago
        Yeah, FOUR different cities "rather than being concentrated". So no, Luxembourg is not "the" capital city of the EU, it's one among a number of institutional seats (a number that is expanding, btw; anything that is not set in treaties is being pushed elsewhere).
paganel 9y ago
> You only pay appropriate taxes in the nation state in which you HQ. This allows poorer countries to compete with richer countries, and allows wealth to "drain" into poorer countries whilst providing cheaper services to the richer ones. Not sure from where you got that idea, but in real life it sure as hell doesn't happen that way. I live in one of the poorest countries in the EU, comparatively speaking (Romania), and let me tell you that there's no multi-national company that "drains" money into our country based on tax arbitrage the way countries like Luxembourg and Ireland do. Quite the contrary, lots and lots of companies do the exact opposite, i.e. draining money out of Romania to their headquarters in Ireland, Luxembourg and other (much richer than us) countries of Europe.
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  What it also does is allow companies to pay below living wage because the "rich" country will pick up the bill for the social care of the companies employees. The "rich" country then doesn't get the corporation tax, which would help balance the losses incurred by large companies forcing wages down; instead that money goes to the lowest bidding country elsewhere that's not incurring costs from the company's operations. Allowing this exploit makes the corporation's (and thus their owners/executives) richer at the expense of the workers and ordinary tax payers. It's right for the EU to act in favour of its citizens in this regard. Indeed you're right the money drains to the country offering the best deal, which isn't necessarily the poorest as they can't afford to give rich corporations such deals. There's probably a measure of legal framework too - how easy is it too bypass legal requirements by supporting the political party in power, that sort of thing.
toyg 9y ago
> This allows poorer countries to compete with richer countries No, that's free movement of labor and goods that does that: you can manufacture in PoorCountry for X rather than the X+Y that would cost in Rich Country, then you can sell competitively in RichCountry for X+Y and bag Y. What happens to Y after that is another matter entirely.

oblio 9y ago

> This allows poorer countries to compete with richer countries. Yes, the poor, starving Grand Duchy of Luxembourg :D

easytiger 9y ago
Yes, the appointed capital of The EU
- toyg 9y ago
  What? The most central EU institutions are based in Bruxelles, Belgium. The EU Parliament also spends half the time in Strasbourg, France. Only the Court of Justice is in Luxembourg. There is no "appointed capital". Bruxelles is the closest thing in practical terms, but the location of the institutions it hosts was an early choice that has since been slowly rejected. All new EU authorities are "dispersed" elsewhere, and there is talk of moving the Parliament to Strasbourg full-time, now that it's pretty clear that the French are nowhere as dominant in European institutions as originally feared.
  - easytiger 9y ago
    capital being slang for "institutional seat"
    - toyg 9y ago
      You seem to be confused. One could argue that Bruxelles is such “capital”, but definitely not Luxembourg. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_seats_of_the_European_Union https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_seats_of_the_E...
      - easytiger 9y ago
        capital being slang for "institutional seat" From your own link: > The seven institutions of the European Union (EU) are seated in four different cities, viz. Brussels, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, rather than being concentrated in a single capital city.
        toyg 9y ago
        Yeah, FOUR different cities "rather than being concentrated". So no, Luxembourg is not "the" capital city of the EU, it's one among a number of institutional seats (a number that is expanding, btw; anything that is not set in treaties is being pushed elsewhere).

paganel 9y ago

> You only pay appropriate taxes in the nation state in which you HQ. This allows poorer countries to compete with richer countries, and allows wealth to "drain" into poorer countries whilst providing cheaper services to the richer ones. Not sure from where you got that idea, but in real life it sure as hell doesn't happen that way. I live in one of the poorest countries in the EU, comparatively speaking (Romania), and let me tell you that there's no multi-national company that "drains" money into our country based on tax arbitrage the way countries like Luxembourg and Ireland do. Quite the contrary, lots and lots of companies do the exact opposite, i.e. draining money out of Romania to their headquarters in Ireland, Luxembourg and other (much richer than us) countries of Europe.

pbhjpbhj 9y ago
What it also does is allow companies to pay below living wage because the "rich" country will pick up the bill for the social care of the companies employees. The "rich" country then doesn't get the corporation tax, which would help balance the losses incurred by large companies forcing wages down; instead that money goes to the lowest bidding country elsewhere that's not incurring costs from the company's operations. Allowing this exploit makes the corporation's (and thus their owners/executives) richer at the expense of the workers and ordinary tax payers. It's right for the EU to act in favour of its citizens in this regard. Indeed you're right the money drains to the country offering the best deal, which isn't necessarily the poorest as they can't afford to give rich corporations such deals. There's probably a measure of legal framework too - how easy is it too bypass legal requirements by supporting the political party in power, that sort of thing.

toyg 9y ago

> This allows poorer countries to compete with richer countries No, that's free movement of labor and goods that does that: you can manufacture in PoorCountry for X rather than the X+Y that would cost in Rich Country, then you can sell competitively in RichCountry for X+Y and bag Y. What happens to Y after that is another matter entirely.