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How? Google’s money doesn’t belong to you or the government. Taxes shouldn’t be confiscatory. Is Google using more government services than a less profitable co

How? Google’s money doesn’t belong to you or the government. Taxes shouldn’t be confiscatory. Is Google using more government services than a less profitable company or a similar size? Of course not. So why should they pay more? How about the millions in taxes paid by their employees? Or the millions in sales taxes paid by employees, or the millions in property taxes paid by employees? Or all of the businesses who sell products to employees? Or the capital gains realized by shareholders that are then used to invest in other businesses or buy products and services? Even if Google paid 0%, they are a massive net economic gain for the country. Remember, corporations don’t pay taxes, people do. If Google paid more, prices for their services would rise and that would then increase customer acquisition costs for businesses which would result in lower profits for the businesses which means they hire fewer people and thus lower wages and higher unemployment which results in even fewer taxes collected and then, before long, you have the economy of France. Google would then lose business and contract in size and then they would pay even less in taxes. The Laffer Curve is a real thing.

vibrio 9y ago
"The Laffer Curve is a real thing." there are some assumptions about where on that curve we are. The balance sheets of most of these companies were at record levels before the tax cuts, and most of the tax benefits will go into share buy backs, which will not do that much to stimulate the weakest parts of this economy.
Chriky 9y ago
The Laffer Curve makes a number of assumptions without evidence, most notably that tax revenue as function of tax rate is memoryless, when it obviously isn't. This is ignoring the issue, even when accepting the Laffer curve as true, that the revenue maximising rate would surely be well above what would be morally acceptable to enforce (~75%)
s2g 9y ago
> The Laffer Curve is a real thing. Parody account?

vibrio 9y ago

"The Laffer Curve is a real thing." there are some assumptions about where on that curve we are. The balance sheets of most of these companies were at record levels before the tax cuts, and most of the tax benefits will go into share buy backs, which will not do that much to stimulate the weakest parts of this economy.

Chriky 9y ago

The Laffer Curve makes a number of assumptions without evidence, most notably that tax revenue as function of tax rate is memoryless, when it obviously isn't. This is ignoring the issue, even when accepting the Laffer curve as true, that the revenue maximising rate would surely be well above what would be morally acceptable to enforce (~75%)

s2g 9y ago

> The Laffer Curve is a real thing. Parody account?