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Since the beginning of written history there have been taxes and there has been corruption. And people respond very strongly to financial incentives - notice ho

Since the beginning of written history there have been taxes and there has been corruption. And people respond very strongly to financial incentives - notice how people drive out of their way to save a few pennies on gas. Now imagine you have millions or billions of dollars. You do not want to hand over 50% of your income to tax authorities, especially if a legal way exists not to. And if you make the current legal ways illegal, the money will just keep flowing to invented ways. There will never be a way to avoid this, unless you have a centralized AI super computer that cannot be manipulated by fallible humans watching everyone’s cash globally and enforcing strict rules. And that will never happen. Most of the Panama Papers revelations were not illegal behavior. This article says most of this is perfectly legal. I’m not sure what the scandal here is other than humans don’t want to give half their money away to the government.

Iv 5y ago
That's like saying murder should be legal as it is impossible to totally prevent it.
- seibelj 5y ago
  And now you are comparing tax evasion to murder! I would say there’s a difference. Otherwise we need to give the IRS execution abilities(?)
jyscao 5y ago
Amen. While far from being super wealthy, many if not most people on HN could probably benefit significantly from better tax planning on their own personal incomes.
- mandmandam 5y ago
  >many if not most people on HN could probably benefit significantly from better tax planning on their own personal incomes. Those people are comfortable, well into the top 10% of earners. And I think it's nice that they don't spend money hiring a slimeball tax accountant to help avoid paying their part to society. I think it's sick that there are people making 6 or 7 figures a year helping cunts to save 7 or 8 figures a year that should be going into schools and infrastructure, and it's even sicker that those people are looked up to because they drive nice cars and wear expensive suits. But that's not what these papers are about - they're about systematic secretive theft, from all society, on a massive scale. And this at a time when people are still dying from hunger and deprivation even in the richest countries.

Iv 5y ago

That's like saying murder should be legal as it is impossible to totally prevent it.

seibelj 5y ago
And now you are comparing tax evasion to murder! I would say there’s a difference. Otherwise we need to give the IRS execution abilities(?)

jyscao 5y ago

Amen. While far from being super wealthy, many if not most people on HN could probably benefit significantly from better tax planning on their own personal incomes.

mandmandam 5y ago
>many if not most people on HN could probably benefit significantly from better tax planning on their own personal incomes. Those people are comfortable, well into the top 10% of earners. And I think it's nice that they don't spend money hiring a slimeball tax accountant to help avoid paying their part to society. I think it's sick that there are people making 6 or 7 figures a year helping cunts to save 7 or 8 figures a year that should be going into schools and infrastructure, and it's even sicker that those people are looked up to because they drive nice cars and wear expensive suits. But that's not what these papers are about - they're about systematic secretive theft, from all society, on a massive scale. And this at a time when people are still dying from hunger and deprivation even in the richest countries.