11–20 of 105 posts
If I’m a small company and participate in a chain of 8 companies providing a good or service, there is a large multiple of tax paid on that good as compared to a competitor who manages to do all 8 things in a single company. (This is why VAT taxation works better and is more common than a gross receipts tax.)
The problem starts small. They introduced a new indirect tax act in 2017 (gst) and it was fine for a couple of weeks but suddenly every business user was supposed to get registered at a centralized portal. Cool but there was penalty for delay and penalty for filing returns late. Cool. So they got an amendment. Fine. Next day a notification. Next day a circular.
In the last 5-6 years, they have changed the act in like 1200-1300 times by way of various amendments, rules, notifications, orders, not to talk about court judgments.
You are NEVER sure if you know something to be a fact when in fact 2 years ago a particular notification amended the act to be read in a certain way. Then another amended it further. Then again.
All the while the govt accepts the fact that all taxpayers are not paying govt their dues so they treat them as such, Financial criminals so there is jail provisions even.
Direct tax is no different. You annual " income tax return" is to be prepared in 1 our of 7 forms. Cool. Then you have to see various schedules and time limits and audits and compliances and other stuff. A lot of stuff DOES MAKE SENSE but you have to have practiced for 5-12 years before saying that. Then it kinda makes sense on an overall level. For everyone else, go fuck yourself.
In my case, I think my taxes in Norway are easier to deal with as compared to filing US taxes just because there isn't much incentive to take advantage of the bureaucracy and procedures around it like in the US. It's a little complex in Norway, but I can and have guessed correctly what my tax burden would be outside what was directly reported to Skattetaten. I imagine it is even easier for tiny countries (or semi-autonomous regions) like what the Faroese have.
It's completely irrational but any mention of this place is tainted by their dolphin hunts. How about learn about their taxes and they learn about PR.
Taxing businesses on gross revenues (what “no deductions” means) is a huge bias in favor of vertical integration and large conglomerates. If I’m a small company and participate in a chain of 8 companies providing a good or service, there is a large multiple of tax paid on that good as compared to a competitor who manages to do all 8 things in a single company. (This is why VAT taxation works better and is more common…
If you taxed revenues, some businesses would just be impossible to run. I have to imagine that there are grocery stores and pharmacies in the Faroe Islands.
Taxing businesses on gross revenues (what “no deductions” means) is a huge bias in favor of vertical integration and large conglomerates. If I’m a small company and participate in a chain of 8 companies providing a good or service, there is a large multiple of tax paid on that good as compared to a competitor who manages to do all 8 things in a single company. (This is why VAT taxation works better and is more common…
The author means to say income tax deductions for employees on their earned wages during the year.
They did not explain if they charge any sales tax (vat) on export of fish or locally or any import duty on imported goods so this is very specific about its explanation
They could send that journalist to almost any country and experience a better tax system than the US. Although it sounds like a nice trip and he got some hikes in. > Filing taxes takes up an estimated 6.5 billion hours each year—as the right-leaning Tax Foundation points out, the equivalent of 3.1 million people working full-time for the whole year. It's just a staggering level of waste. But hey, keep shuffling stuff…
Turbo tax and H&R Block, companies that produce software for filling taxes, lobby to keep taxes complex and non-easy (unless you pay for their software)
If there's ever anything in unsure of, I hire an independent tax person to do it. Then if I have to do it again, I use that as a template.
Another option is a lot of these places allow you to compute the results without paying, and you can use that to check your work.
Overall, a royal pain in the ass, but at least those fuckers don't get a dime out of me.
But the OP's notion makes about as much sense as asking if Amazon can somehow draw lessons for improving the efficiency and simplicity of its global software and hardware infrastructure by studying the super-simple software and hardware infrastructure of some tiny company. It strikes me as... highly unlikely.
The economy of the Faroe Islands is both very, very small (annual GDP is 166x smaller than Amazon's annual revenues) and very, very simple (45% of exports are salmon fish), making it much easier to find a really simple system that works reasonably well for everyone. A quick comparison is instructive:
Population GDP
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United States 333,287,000 $25,035.0B
Faroe Islands 54,000 $3.1B
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They could send that journalist to almost any country and experience a better tax system than the US. Although it sounds like a nice trip and he got some hikes in. > Filing taxes takes up an estimated 6.5 billion hours each year—as the right-leaning Tax Foundation points out, the equivalent of 3.1 million people working full-time for the whole year. It's just a staggering level of waste. But hey, keep shuffling stuff…
Turbo tax and H&R Block, companies that produce software for filling taxes, lobby to keep taxes complex and non-easy (unless you pay for their software)
Calculating part time rental property depreciation is complicated, but that's because it IS complicated.