The fact that everyone views it as normal for the US to endorse global tax laws is pretty frightening
Why? To me it feels similar to the US endorsing anti-child labor laws or anti-corruption laws.
U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
121–130 of 260 posts
Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
#122Countries should get taxes back from a corporation at a ratio equivalent to their contributions of a corporations success/profits.
US has a good legal system, fairly educated population, market, etc. Most of these corps would not have made it in a country like Russia, or they would've been taken over in China etc. They need to pay their fair share back into the system that allowed them to thrive.
Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a US taxpayer who sees the fraud, abuse, and general mismanagement of my tax money why would I willingly support the same government getting more? It is incredibly depressing how little I get from the government vs how much they take from me. The entire system is a sham and I honestly don't want to support it anymore. I'm working as hard as I can to try and escape it at the earliest possible moment.
There is some fraud and abuse, of course. And the huge numbers involved mean that even a small percentage of fraud is a huge number. But there never seems to be any statistics that back up the assertion that government (in general) or the US government (in particular) produces outrageous amount of fraud or abuse.
But there never seems to be any statistics
Ever heard of the Pentagon? Here's a good start: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/pentagon-audit-bud...
Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
#124It’s not about a level, it’s about the rule. To everyone who says “15% is fair,” consider what you’ll feel like at 70% marginal. Literal global rule. Some would call that overreach.
This is like pretending only binaries matter (rule/not rule) vs. gradations on a continuum.
No pretending. Sometimes binaries do matter.
Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Corporation tax. They should just dump it and tax dividends and capitals gains like any other income. It's easy to shift corporation tax but much harder to shift an individuals income.
A large percentage of U.S. corporate ownership is held by foreign taxpayers that would not be subject to U.S. taxation on dividends or capital gains absent a fairly large and radical change in tax law, including breaking more than a hundred tax treaties. It's much easier to simply impose an AMT and eliminate a relative handful of expense shifting mechanisms (many of which are already covered by a regime known as "tra…
They would be liable for tax on dividends in their own country, just as US investors in non US companies would be liable for tax at home. No radical change needed (besides abolishing corporation tax).
Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
#126This will eliminate competition for low taxes. A pretty scary proposal.
Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
#127If they would just close the loop holes that allow things like having Apple, setup a subsidiary that licenses its own stuff back to itself so it can move profits around the world ... you'd solve this problem. Make a rule, if you own >50% of a company, you can't buy trademarks, patents, whatever from yourself.
They don't even have to close the loophole. Just tell the US Apple Corporation (as an example) they can't proceed in their current court cases, as they are not the 'owner' of the IP, they are merely a licensee. Let them fight it in the court systems of the country where the IP is actually in.
Right now, these companies get all the tax/financial protection of another country, but all the legal protection of the US.
Imagine the EPIC vs Apple Battle, if they had to try it in another country, or even better, in every country that 'licences' apple's IP.. Lots more chances for losing.
Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
#128The fact that everyone views it as normal for the US to endorse global tax laws is pretty frightening
The fact that certain countries can endorse global rules dictating what constitutes a war crime is pretty frightening too. Who are you, Lovecraft? Does the mere concept of global politics scare you?
Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
#129I thought I remembered at some point (might have been more than a decade ago) that I heard that most economist thought that corporate income taxes were basically a bad idea? Is this no longer held as a valid belief?
Long term, I would almost prefer if we just moved to taxing people's assets. Maybe we can force corporations to basically pay out most of their profits to shareholders to avoid having them get too large?
Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas
#130Tax complexity is a function of rates. The higher rates go the more value any particular additional complexity has. Maybe this is a good idea and maybe it's not but to the extent rates are high it's going to be a disappointment as a way to increase revenue.