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Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

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Re: Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

#41

The idea that politicians and bureaucracies can defer to external international conventions to be the bad-cop for wildly unpopular policy decisions - and then claim to be powerless to stop them - is anathema to democratic principles like national representation, consent of the governed, and other concepts of human rights. This proposal seems like a global group of government affiliated people colluding to fleece each…

I don't think the New World Order conspiracy theorists were particularly paranoid about closing corporate tax haven loopholes.

Re: Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

#42
post #27

How are developing countries going to catch up with developed ones if they agree on the same tax policies?

China didn't need to have ridiculously attractive taxes to catch up.

Corporate taxes in China were ~33% when it was growing the fastest.

Just having a low-cost labor force and scale and global politics not being anti-offshoring was enough.

As China becomes more expensive, I'm not sure why Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Egypt, and/or Vietnam couldn't do something similar.

India seems to be in that process.

Unfortunately, if you're a small, poor country like Western Sahara - I don't think tax policies are enough to move the needle.

Re: Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

#43

The idea that politicians and bureaucracies can defer to external international conventions to be the bad-cop for wildly unpopular policy decisions - and then claim to be powerless to stop them - is anathema to democratic principles like national representation, consent of the governed, and other concepts of human rights. This proposal seems like a global group of government affiliated people colluding to fleece each…

While it may be a cowardly way to divert responsibility I don't agree that this is so bad. This problem can only be solved by cooperating, otherwise companies can just shop around for the cheapest taxation rate.

Re: Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

#44

The idea that politicians and bureaucracies can defer to external international conventions to be the bad-cop for wildly unpopular policy decisions - and then claim to be powerless to stop them - is anathema to democratic principles like national representation, consent of the governed, and other concepts of human rights. This proposal seems like a global group of government affiliated people colluding to fleece each…

I think you’ve just described all trade treaties. Typically Congress still has to ratify. There’s no anathema to democratic principles in my view. You’ve elected these leaders to represent the interests of the USA. Something you disagree with at some level will always be accomplished because that’s the nature of democracy. In a dictatorship, you have perfect agreement provided that you are in the small group that holds meaningful power.

Re: Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

#45
post #6

Does anyone know at what point the tax is paid? I ask because publicly traded companies avoid it by doing share buy backs. So Apple technically makes no profit. 1% or 15% or 100% of technically nothing is nothing... >The deal also reportedly includes a framework to eliminate digital services taxes, which targeted the biggest American tech companies. Quid Pro quo Clarice!

Apple might make no profit, but wouldn't the shareholders selling their stock back to Apple have to report the sale as capital gains? So (at least some) taxes would be paid on that money, just not by Apple directly.

So, if they paid a dividend apple would pay Corp tax AND the share holder would pay cap gains. A buy back avoids the Corp tax and let's the shareholder delay paying (until they sell) and also pay a lower rate if they're careful (long term holdings I think get a lower rate, 10% I think?).

There is another reply here saying Corp tax is still due. I didn't think it was but I'll check after dinner.

Re: Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

#46
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of all the arguments to be made about corporate taxation, this one makes the absolute least sense.

I would say that most of the problems with wealthy people not paying their "fair" share (what ever that might be) is the fact that people are taxed on income and corporations are taxed on profit. Many wealthy people do what they want to do with companies (taxed only on profits) or non-profits (not taxed at all!), while the average Joe is taxed on their income. It would be a good idea to have both people and companies…

Would the land tax work well with, say, tech companies though? To me it seems those take advantage of completely different resources. Internet infrastructure, data, attention, you name it.

Re: Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

#47

The complexity of this agreement and its execution are incredible. Not only getting alignment from 130 members, but a system by which companies report their revenue _and the cost of the revenue_ for every country! Future tax avoidance schemes will most likely try to "divert" their costs towards high-revenue countries like the US. After all, what is the profit margin of an iPhone sold in Romania? For some context, cor…

How much revenue is "missing" due to tax magic?

Re: Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

#48

This alone: >>The deal also reportedly includes a framework to eliminate digital services taxes, which targeted the biggest American tech companies. >>In their place, officials agreed to a new tax plan that would be linked to the places where multinationals are actually doing business, rather than where they are headquartered. Was enough to address this concern: >>If widely enacted, the GMT would effectively end the…

Corporate tax has only been evolving recently to the benefit of the largest companies primarily benefit the richest individuals in the world.

It's fine if you want it to continue evolving, but I don't.

Re: Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal

#49
post #33
post #29

When the benefits of creating a new country outweigh the costs (to shareholders), does it fall within the fiduciary duty of corporate leaders to form a new country?

I'm curious if the world-at-large would recognize a corporate country though. A country is only a country if other countries recognize it as such.

I wouldn't be surprised if you only needed one country to do it and then could funnel all your taxes through that complicit country. If that happened we would be back at the double Irish with an extra step. Forcing all participants to recognize the same countries could have all kinds of good or bad side effects especially when you consider China and Taiwan.
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