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Shouting ‘pay your taxes,’ activists occupy Apple retail stores across France

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Re: Shouting ‘pay your taxes,’ activists occupy Apple retail stores across France

#3
post #2

Why does no one get mad at the governments who have the large tax loop holes? Shouldn't it be "Ireland close your loopholes!"

> Why does no one get mad at the governments who have the large tax loop holes?

Why do you assume no one is? This has been discussed at length during the last French presidential election for example.

See also: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-24/macron-ha....

Re: Shouting ‘pay your taxes,’ activists occupy Apple retail stores across France

#8
post #2

Why does no one get mad at the governments who have the large tax loop holes? Shouldn't it be "Ireland close your loopholes!"

> Why does no one get mad at the governments who have the large tax loop holes? Why do you assume no one is? This has been discussed at length during the last French presidential election for example. See also: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-24/macron-ha... .

Found another article. https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0916/905202-donohoe-eu-tax-plan...

"According to one diplomat, the strongest level of opposition came from Ireland, Malta and Cyprus. Luxembourg was said to have raised a series of practical problems about the proposal, arguing it would introduce a lot of complexity into the tax system."

Go figure. Noncompetitive EU countries complaining the loudest.

Re: Shouting ‘pay your taxes,’ activists occupy Apple retail stores across France

#9
I really respect this kind of activism. Fair taxation certainly isn't the sexiest topic to hold a protest about, but it is actually a huge fundamental issue for us today. Individuals, and Corporations we treat as legal individuals, produce value for our society in several ways, and paying taxes is one of them. When wealthy individuals or large corporations dodge taxes via off-shore firms, etc. they erode the basis of public services and increase the tax burden on less wealthy individuals and smaller companies.

Worse yet, they frequently seem to do this by subverting our public officials. It's reached the point where our regulatory institutions and even our government appear severely compromised by the financial concerns of corporations. If our elected representatives need corporate money just to get elected, how can we rely on them to represent us on issues that might run against the interests of those corporate donors? Direct public action, such as protests, seem to be the last recourse left available to us on certain topics.

When you have a large, enormously successful company sitting on gargantuan cash reserves not paying its taxes and getting away with it, you have a problem. Apple probably isn't even the worst offender, but they're famous and have a built in hate-club (anything that inspires fans also inspires anti-fans). While this protest only had a few hundred supporters, that's pretty incredible for this kind of topic. Hopefully this sort of protest happens more often and gives tax-evading corporations pause.

Re: Shouting ‘pay your taxes,’ activists occupy Apple retail stores across France

#10
post #5
post #2

Why does no one get mad at the governments who have the large tax loop holes? Shouldn't it be "Ireland close your loopholes!"

Maybe people are mad at their government but more mad at Apple?

More would be accomplished by protesting the government that allows certain loopholes.

Apple is a public company with an obligation to its shareholders to make money, not pay erroneous taxes.

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