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U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

nytimes.com

131–140 of 260 posts

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you described is done with less than 15% of total spending budget that the U.S. currently allocates. The vast majority goes to paying for military spending and benefits to people who pay very little tax.

> benefits to people who pay very little tax This is extremely misinformed. Social Security Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance are entitlement programs, and by far account for the vast majority of this budget (along with the Medicare that most of these individuals are entitled to have). You do not have a right to it, and you are obligated to participate in the insurance program by paying taxes. They are…

Social security is effectively a boomer ponzi scheme relying on infinite population growth to sustain itself. It falls apart the first time a generation realizes they can reap more than they sow by having/investing in fewer children, but the bill comes due.

A just system would be something like "invest 15% of your income in XYZ approved categories, or pay a penalty tax on up to 15% of your income". This effectively mandates citizen savings via penalizing irresponsible spending/lack of savings.

"We'll tax you and we pinky promise to pay you back someday... totally investing that money and not spending it now then printing more when we need to pay up" is both so insane and obvious an outcome I suspect leaded gasoline played a role in societal acceptance.

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#132

Pretty hype about this TBH. There is a long history of companies domiciling in say, Monaco, The Cayman Island, Panama etc to avoid taxes and regulations where they mainly operate. My understanding is that the current process in vogue for the mega cap companies is the "double irish dutch sandwich" https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/double-irish-with-a-dut... No one, including tax lawyers, will tell you with a straig…

This is all just because we are afraid of the T word. A uniform tariff and matching currency export control achieves the same effect, and doesn't impose US hegemony on the rest of the wrold.

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#133
post #109

Pretty hype about this TBH. There is a long history of companies domiciling in say, Monaco, The Cayman Island, Panama etc to avoid taxes and regulations where they mainly operate. My understanding is that the current process in vogue for the mega cap companies is the "double irish dutch sandwich" https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/double-irish-with-a-dut... No one, including tax lawyers, will tell you with a straig…

>My understanding is that the current process in vogue for the mega cap companies is the "double irish dutch sandwich" You're understanding is outdated this mechanism is finished as of 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement However this article is a little biased -- it's main contributor is a user called "Britishfinance" -- who appears to be a London based corporate shill to take the heat off th…

> London based corporate shill to take the heat off the City of London being a tax haven.

Nice catch. It could be a Russian bot or just Russian activity.

Will ‘Global Britain’ clamp down on money laundering?: Regulatory easing after Brexit risks attracting more dirty money to London

https://archive.is/PR0oX

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you described is done with less than 15% of total spending budget that the U.S. currently allocates. The vast majority goes to paying for military spending and benefits to people who pay very little tax.

> benefits to people who pay very little tax This is extremely misinformed. Social Security Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance are entitlement programs, and by far account for the vast majority of this budget (along with the Medicare that most of these individuals are entitled to have). You do not have a right to it, and you are obligated to participate in the insurance program by paying taxes. They are…

I personally like to use this site when this sort of thing comes up. It is not a perfect breakdown. But hits on what is going on on. https://www.usdebtclock.org/

Bottom line though is we are taking in about 3.5 and spending about 7. We are well past 'buy one less bomber'.

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#135

I 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?

taxing people's assets is complicated as hell. How much is your house worth. And before you answer that question, have you been in a bubbly market? Quotes for houses in the place I've been have gone up by 10% in the last 4 months.

Now, suppose you have bought a house and suddenly all of your neighbors are rich. An appraiser comes to your place and suddenly you owe taxes and you basically get evicted from your home under a net-worth-taxation regime. 100% guarantee in your "ideal" situation, the rules will be abused to fuck over those with less clout.

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#136

Pretty hype about this TBH. There is a long history of companies domiciling in say, Monaco, The Cayman Island, Panama etc to avoid taxes and regulations where they mainly operate. My understanding is that the current process in vogue for the mega cap companies is the "double irish dutch sandwich" https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/double-irish-with-a-dut... No one, including tax lawyers, will tell you with a straig…

Sounds like a step toward world government.

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#137
post #20

They're fumbling around trying to find any way to get out of the messes they keep creating. Yet, no one dares to talk about the true underlying causes.

what is the true underlying cause?

The usurious underlying financial system.

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely. But instead of solving this problem inside US they want to re-engineer the whole globe. Most countries are mad about multinationals, most of them rich US multinationals. If the US would do a proper job of taxing their own corporations none of this would be necessary. Interesting how this is just in time for the Dutch sandwich scheme to expire. Clearly something else was missing!

How else do you solve this in the US? Company A sells all of its IP to Ireland. They have the Irish company charge them 100% of the profits for IP. Poof. No US taxable income. What's your magic beans solution for this beside what the IRS plans to do?

Why not just cut the corporate rate to 0 and raise the necessary funds through a VAT? No amount of fancy accounting tricks will eliminate companies' dependence on the US consumer market.

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#139
post #77

Just watch, the next step is to apply this concept to US Sates. Require a minimum 5% state income tax and if less, have the IRS take the difference.

The problem already exists in states though. There is a disproportionate number of companies headquartered in Delaware[0]. That's not really fair when most of the actual business is done in other states but Delaware is currently leading the tax rate race to the bottom within the US 50 states.

[0]https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/76951/why-are-so-many-us...

Re: U.S. Backs 15% Global Minimum Tax to Curb Profit Shifting Overseas

#140

Pretty hype about this TBH. There is a long history of companies domiciling in say, Monaco, The Cayman Island, Panama etc to avoid taxes and regulations where they mainly operate. My understanding is that the current process in vogue for the mega cap companies is the "double irish dutch sandwich" https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/double-irish-with-a-dut... No one, including tax lawyers, will tell you with a straig…

This is all just because we are afraid of the T word. A uniform tariff and matching currency export control achieves the same effect, and doesn't impose US hegemony on the rest of the wrold.

Sure, but both of those will have other, potentially unwanted consequences. Besides, this isn't just "US hegemony," most of the EU wants this as well (except Ireland), as they want to tax the local profits of multinational tech.
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