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Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

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Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

#341

Post by jbergens »

pbourke wrote: post #103
jxcole wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? This comment is not about Berlin or Paris, it is mentioning then as examples of non English speaking cities. Is the author supposed to mention every city in Europe?

The Netherlands has the highest English proficiency in the world [0] (among non-native speaking countries) so I imagine it would be a compelling choice. [0] https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/

I think Sweden and Denmark has the same level. They seem to take turn on which is the highest with 0 1% or so difference. Of course, they are further to the north end of Europe and may as such be a less suitable choice.

Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

#342

Post by gumby »

_abox wrote: post #328
rusk wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Official Ireland were dragged into this kicking and screaming. There really wasn’t much choice involved - unless the OECD brass were thinking in generous terms towards Ireland. If anything I’d say the timing of this is in part what drove Brexit - this has been coming for a few years now and “City”* of London is one of the worlds biggest hubs for processing funny money. * This is the somewhat cryptic name for the fina…

The OECD has zero legal power however. It's just a "thinktank", they have no way to enforce anything they come up with. I'm sure soft power pressure from the EU was a big factor in this, sure. But they weren't forced to as such.

Yeah, the idea of OECD “brass” made me chuckle.

Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

#343

Post by mupuff1234 »

refurb wrote: post #249
mupuff1234 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if tax money would all go into a black hole - you would still get a slightly more equal society just by having smaller wealth gaps.

Making everyone a bit poorer is better because the wealth gap is lower?

I'm mostly talking about progressive taxes aimed at the 1%.

Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

#344

Post by rusk »

gumby wrote: post #342
_abox wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OECD has zero legal power however. It's just a "thinktank", they have no way to enforce anything they come up with. I'm sure soft power pressure from the EU was a big factor in this, sure. But they weren't forced to as such.

Yeah, the idea of OECD “brass” made me chuckle.

Excuse me? are there not senior officials [0] in these organisations that convene these things, set timelines and such? I’m sorry if I am using some definition of the colloquially term “brass” that you are not familiar with.

You condescending fool.

EDIT [0] https://search.oecd.org/about/structure/

Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

#346

Post by brigandish »

ashtonkem wrote: post #317
brigandish wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democracy is very inconvenient, especially for those who struggle to persuade others how to live.

Good quip, but you’re of course ignoring the issue that democracies can sometimes trample minority rights. This is precisely the issue in this context, with Poland trying to pass anti-LGBTQ laws, and the EU trying to stop them. Democracies are often very convenient for coercing minorities into living the way the majority wants them to live.

I'm not ignoring any such thing, as Churchill famously said "democ­ra­cy is the worst form of Gov­ern­ment except for all those oth­er forms that have been tried". It's inconvenient even for those who are persuasive, but especially for those who are not and for those who are authoritarian - sets that tend to overlap, in my experience.

As to Poland, there are no publicised plans for changes to laws that directly affect gays, and they actually have many legal protections that you'll find lacking elsewhere. No same sex marriage or civil partnerships though.

If you think stripping away democracy so that Polish gays can marry is worth it then you're entitled to that view, but I'd hazard a guess that they've got long enough memories to avoid that kind of short term thinking and will carry on with the long term effort of persuasion, which is going well[1].

> Meanwhile, support for the legalisation of same-sex partnerships – which are currently not permitted in Poland – now stands at 36%, up six percentage points since 2019 and ten since 2015. Surveys by other pollsters have in recent years found a growing majority now in favour of same-sex partnerships.

[1] https://notesfrompoland.com/2021/08/06/poles-becoming-more-s...

Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

#347

Post by coryrc »

dredmorbius wrote: post #219
coryrc wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who built most of the rail lines, including commuter, in the US and Japan? Private companies.

Financed through Federal land grants: Between 1850 and 1872 extensive cessions of public lands were made to states and to railroad companies to promote railroad construction.[18] Usually the companies received from the federal government, in twenty- or fifty-mile strips, alternate sections of public land for each mile of track that was built. Responsibility for surveying and mapping the grants fell to the U.S. Genera…

Still required them to actually pay for the thing, which is a funny usage of financed.

NYC public transit trains and subway were predominately privately-owned and -operated until 1940:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_New_York_City...

How long did the second avenue subway take to finish under benevolent government leadership?

Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

#348

Post by skybrian »

mr_toad wrote: post #316
skybrian wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A VAT isn’t a sales tax though. I think you can subtract the cost of goods since they were already taxed? Compared with income tax, there are fewer expenses you can subtract from revenue, but there still are some. But since prices will adjust, the question is really one of tax incidence. Who gets to raise prices to cover their taxes? And that’s complicated.

VAT is a sales tax, and you can only subtract the cost of goods sold, not any other expenses. Not being able to subtract the cost of goods sold would be ludicrous and farcical.

In the US, sales taxes don’t have any deductions. Some things aren’t taxed, though. It seems like an important difference.

Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

#349

Post by skybrian »

geysersam wrote: post #255
thethimble wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can subtract the cost of goods but you can’t subtract operating expenses like R&D.

Don't know about US VAT system, but for VAT in Europe expenses such as salaries etc are deductable.

I hadn’t heard of this. Where can I read more about it?

Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement

#350

Post by m0zg »

Maarten88 wrote: post #300
m0zg wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government is the primary enabler of corruption in the first place. Don't know how it is in Ireland, but in the United States I can't really see it serving any other function at the moment. It abdicated all its responsibilities entirely, and for the past several decades it's been working only for its donors, not constituents. I would be surprised if Ireland is any better.

That is projection. I think if you look around in the world you could see many countries where government works quite well, with little corruption, maybe a bit slow, yet offering services that are better and more efficient than businesses could. In the US people have been led to believe this is simply impossible. Government may be the enabler of corruption but there is no alternative other than to fix it. Libertarian…

Does it? Or does it work that way only in the Nordics where you seem to be from, judging by your handle?
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