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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

#121
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Gee, it's almost like taxing corporate profits twice has caused massive distortions everywhere: biggest stock price bubble, tax residency shopping, etc Tax the wealthy. Don't let them take "charitable" deductions or use tax-exempt IRAs. 100% inheritance tax above $4 million.

> Gee, it's almost like taxing corporate profits twice has caused massive distortions everywhere:

Sure.

> 100% inheritance tax above $4 million.

If you don't think this would cause "massive distortions everywhere", I have some bad news...

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

#122

In the limit of free flowing capital and goods this minimum is likely to also be the maximum. This will lead to a more homogenous and uniform financial situation across all countries. A much better idea would be tarrifs. A country can tax each corporation as they see fit and what is in line with their values. They can also then have corporate or other taxes in line with their values. This would lead to a diverse mena…

Why would this put downward pressure on the maximum corporate tax? The current minimum is 0%. Why isn't 0% also the de facto maximum, right now? Why would raising the minimum force it to (tend to) equal the maximum?

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

#123

Did a quick cross ref for the non-signatories ranked by GDP: https://pastebin.com/YyYTV65i I'd predict corporations to move to countries on this list that are non-sanctioned, high rule of law index, and easy to do business in. Ireland and Estonia in particular come to mind.

Ireland is a big hole. Many corps have huge nexus there simply to avoid corporate tax. Would the Dutch-Irish double-sandwich still work - maybe with another country?

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

#124
Will this include rebate schemes?

Also Africa and countries with low enforcement (either willing low enforcement or caused by scarce public sector resources) will have capital flowing in. Once the law is there the next race to the bottom will happen on odds of enforcement of such law.

Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Uruguay, Belize, Panama, UAE, Liberia , the Caribbean.

The usual suspects will continue to dominate the transfer pricing business, only they'd house foundations and 501c3 type vehicles, as well as private companies which are normally not in the authority watchlist. Such as the Trump Organization before he decided to run for President

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

#125

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…

> This is literally what conspiracy theorists have been predicting for decades, it's a terrible shame to make them right.

When conspiracy theorists start being right, you need to question whether they're crazier for believing their theories no matter what, or if it's crazier to believe that they're wrong no matter what. Things like this are why I've never fallen for the promise that globalization and open borders are good for anybody but the ultra-rich, maybe.

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

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low Corporate tax rates invite corporations into your country. This benefits poor countries more.

...until a poorer country adopts a lower rate, and the corporation leaves. That's the trap this avoids.

It's not a trap. The money will just never go to those countries now.

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

#127
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…

Why not just consider every person a corporation? If it make 100K and it costs you 90K to run your family (yes there will be special rules) you pay tax on the 10K.

If you make 1M and it costs you 400K to run your family, you pay on the 600K.

If you spend more than you earn, you carry forward the loss.

Land value tax makes sense on paper, but implementation is a huge question. Who decides the price, how often is it revised, how do you make it transparent? Maybe "solve" that issue with a trick: everyone decides their own value and thus their own tax, but whatever value they decide is a an offer to the market: if you think the person is underpricing their land, you can buy it from them at that price.

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

#128

Imposing taxes on a legal entity always seemed fishy to me. Politically, it sounds great to say, "Make the corporations pay their share!", but who exactly are we targeting with these taxes? Is it the rich executives? Why not just raise taxes on the rich directly? I suspect in most cases the tax burden is just shifted onto the lower-income workers or the customers somehow.

> Politically, it sounds great to say, "Make the corporations pay their share!", but who exactly are we targeting with these taxes?

I just think of it as forced public ownership of a fraction of the shares of companies chartered & granted special privileges by the public's government, but with extra steps.

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

#129

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…

> to fleece each others' citizens instead of serving them

How is that so?

More tax for the government, at least that benefits government workers and public servants positions.

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

#130
post #93

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…

As a normal guy, it is hard to understand the extremes to which a company will avoid taxes, basically getting all the profit to it's stakeholders, and none to the ones who made it possible for them to succeed (the workers, the ones who built the roads, the ones who provides the education to their kids...)

Higher corporation tax ignores the presence of that instinct. If there's more tax on profits, then businesses need to reduce costs (e.g. salaries for workers such as road builders) to compensate.
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