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Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

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Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#6

Post by cletus »

I can't help but think of the GOP's tax "reform" that is a hot topic in the US right now. I say "reform" because there's absolutely no reform about it. It's a tax cut for billionaires bought and paid for by the GOP donor class. The paranoia of religious conservatives certainly elected the GOP but make no mistake: they don't give a shit about anyone but the donor class, often personified by the Koch brothers.

The carried interest tax credit is noticeably absent from the House plan.

The problem with any kind of true reform is that every exception and rule benefits someone and they'll lobby hard to defend it.

As for the corporate tax cut, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it if it came with enforcement against the offshoring (via transfer pricing) of profits in low tax regimes. But of course it doesn't.

Bringing this back to the Paradise Papers and other similar leaks, the problem I have is there's increasingly an ultra-rich class who benefitted greatly by the political stability in places like the developed world but have somehow convinced themselves that they shouldn't have to pay for it.

There was a time in my life when I was against the estate tax on philosophical grounds. That time is long gone. It really is a silver spoon tax. If anything it should be higher.

I really wish I understood why someone with $5b thought themselves above paying for schools, roads, hospitals and police. What really is the practical difference between having $5b or $10b?

Luckily the House plan is pretty much DOA in the Senate.

Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#7

Post by bitL »

If a company doesn't use these tax-avoidance means, it becomes uncompetitive and gets eaten by those, that do. Moreover, there is a wealth of tax optimizing consultants with great knowledge of holes one gets access to once their revenue reaches $x00,000,000, often sanctioned by governing bodies. So if one makes it to the club, the easy way to stay there is to adopt the same disgusting practices like everybody else and shoot the ladder behind themselves. The rest of the world can live in favelas, nobody at the top really cares. I doubt we can't figure out a proper system to track every single transaction and make sure it's taxed properly, but there is no will or there are always some convoluted backdoors proper consulting companies install through lobbying and make available to "donors".

Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#9

Post by _bfhp »

cletus wrote: post #6

I can't help but think of the GOP's tax "reform" that is a hot topic in the US right now. I say "reform" because there's absolutely no reform about it. It's a tax cut for billionaires bought and paid for by the GOP donor class. The paranoia of religious conservatives certainly elected the GOP but make no mistake: they don't give a shit about anyone but the donor class, often personified by the Koch brothers. The carr…

The GOP is beyond corrupt -- would you agree the focus should be on improving the Democratic Party to be formidable again?
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