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Sounds a bit like Japan's Furusato Nozei. This "hometown tax" allows taxpayers to choose where to send a portion of their tax payment, in order to benefit small

Sounds a bit like Japan's Furusato Nozei. This "hometown tax" allows taxpayers to choose where to send a portion of their tax payment, in order to benefit small regional towns that might otherwise be struggling with a shrinking tax base. In order to thank and attract people to pay their Furusato Nozei to a particular town, the towns provide gifts as kickbacks, competing with each other by offering the best gifts. Usually it's something associated with the local area to which the tax is paid. But in order to prevent the gifts from getting too out of control, by law the gifts are limited to 30% of the value of the tax paid...

jefftk 4y ago
Patrick has a great piece on this https://www.kalzumeus.com/2018/10/19/japanese-hometown-tax/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2018/10/19/japanese-hometown-tax/
dragonwriter 4y ago
> Sounds a bit like Japan’s Furusato Nozei. This “hometown tax” allows taxpayers to choose where to send a portion of their tax payment, in order to benefit small regional towns that might otherwise be struggling with a shrinking tax base. One somewhat significant difference is that the Apple/Cupertino thing is illegal, which is why it is being ended and getting news coverage.
- iamerroragent 4y ago
  I am confused. Apple made an agreement with a City. Both parties seem to benefit from the arrangement. I am not sure I see anything illegal here. The Japanese "hometown tax" sounds rather intriguing though. I think it would be difficult to implement efficiently in the U.S. but I think it's a great idea none the less to help smaller towns with limited growth potential. Though I think work-from-home + cheaper cost of living will make small towns quite promising to live in today. Imagine being able to have small farm for the price of a house in the city + city income. Easily do a bit of farming in the morning, remote work during day, finish up anything else the farm needs for the day, and you're set for a pretty nice life in my opinion.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > I am confused. Apple made an agreement with a City. Both parties seem to benefit from the arrangement. I am not sure I see anything illegal here. The illegal part is where the reporting of locations of transactions by Apple, for which they get kickbacks from Cupertino, violates California state law on how location of transactions subject to sales tax are reported by reporting them as occurring at Apple HQ rather than where the goods involved in the specific transaction are located at the time of the transaction. Alice and Bob making an agreement for Alice to forge documents so that Bob gets money that belongs to Clara and for which Bob provides a kickback to Alice may be a mutually beneficial agreement for Alice and Bob, but it is still illegal.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - iamerroragent 4y ago
      > In California, the local portion of collected sales tax goes to the location where the transaction took place, not the location of the customer. The corporation can designate where a given transaction has taken place, separate and apart from the underlying origin and destination realities. I am sorry I'm just going of the linked article and I am sure I am missing some nuances here however it doesn't seem like what they've done is exactly illegal. Alice and Bob agreeing the forge a document is illegal. Bob agreeing to give Alice some money back that Bob collects from Alice's customers because otherwise Bob would get no money from Alice's customers doesn't appear to be illegal (yet). Of course Clara (the State) is free to change her positions on the matter. For example set a limit on how much a city can charge sales tax. > Tax Districts The statewide tax rate is 7.25%. In most areas of California, local jurisdictions have added district taxes that increase the tax owed by a seller. Those district tax rates range from 0.10% to 1.00%. Some areas may have more than one district tax in effect. Sellers are required to report and pay the applicable district taxes for their taxable sales and purchases. https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/taxes-and-fees/sales-use-tax-rates.htm https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/taxes-and-fees/sales-use-tax-rates....
      - 4y ago

jefftk 4y ago

Patrick has a great piece on this https://www.kalzumeus.com/2018/10/19/japanese-hometown-tax/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2018/10/19/japanese-hometown-tax/

dragonwriter 4y ago

> Sounds a bit like Japan’s Furusato Nozei. This “hometown tax” allows taxpayers to choose where to send a portion of their tax payment, in order to benefit small regional towns that might otherwise be struggling with a shrinking tax base. One somewhat significant difference is that the Apple/Cupertino thing is illegal, which is why it is being ended and getting news coverage.

iamerroragent 4y ago
I am confused. Apple made an agreement with a City. Both parties seem to benefit from the arrangement. I am not sure I see anything illegal here. The Japanese "hometown tax" sounds rather intriguing though. I think it would be difficult to implement efficiently in the U.S. but I think it's a great idea none the less to help smaller towns with limited growth potential. Though I think work-from-home + cheaper cost of living will make small towns quite promising to live in today. Imagine being able to have small farm for the price of a house in the city + city income. Easily do a bit of farming in the morning, remote work during day, finish up anything else the farm needs for the day, and you're set for a pretty nice life in my opinion.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > I am confused. Apple made an agreement with a City. Both parties seem to benefit from the arrangement. I am not sure I see anything illegal here. The illegal part is where the reporting of locations of transactions by Apple, for which they get kickbacks from Cupertino, violates California state law on how location of transactions subject to sales tax are reported by reporting them as occurring at Apple HQ rather than where the goods involved in the specific transaction are located at the time of the transaction. Alice and Bob making an agreement for Alice to forge documents so that Bob gets money that belongs to Clara and for which Bob provides a kickback to Alice may be a mutually beneficial agreement for Alice and Bob, but it is still illegal.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - iamerroragent 4y ago
    > In California, the local portion of collected sales tax goes to the location where the transaction took place, not the location of the customer. The corporation can designate where a given transaction has taken place, separate and apart from the underlying origin and destination realities. I am sorry I'm just going of the linked article and I am sure I am missing some nuances here however it doesn't seem like what they've done is exactly illegal. Alice and Bob agreeing the forge a document is illegal. Bob agreeing to give Alice some money back that Bob collects from Alice's customers because otherwise Bob would get no money from Alice's customers doesn't appear to be illegal (yet). Of course Clara (the State) is free to change her positions on the matter. For example set a limit on how much a city can charge sales tax. > Tax Districts The statewide tax rate is 7.25%. In most areas of California, local jurisdictions have added district taxes that increase the tax owed by a seller. Those district tax rates range from 0.10% to 1.00%. Some areas may have more than one district tax in effect. Sellers are required to report and pay the applicable district taxes for their taxable sales and purchases. https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/taxes-and-fees/sales-use-tax-rates.htm https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/taxes-and-fees/sales-use-tax-rates....
    - 4y ago