Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most[0] countries would still make you pay income tax for whatever you earn for your personal services and not class it as part of the business' revenue. I believe in the UK this was addressed with IR35[0] and in Australia it is called as PSI[1] [0] This loophole started being closed in the late 90s/early 00s and continues to be closed in the remaining countries that haven't yet addressed it. [1] https://en.wikipedia…
If you’re a business and need to pay for a car to visit customers or suppliers, that comes off pre tax. If you’re an individual and need to pay for a car to go to the office or supermarket, that’s post tax.
Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
321–330 of 384 posts
Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm from the UK and whilst working with a handful of dutch, I was blown away not only by their extremely good english but also their ability to understand and the subitle aspects of english - eg comedy/ sarcasium/ passive aggresstion etc..
Dutch is probably the closest language to English that isn’t a dialect of English.
It should not be too surprising, given that Scots in large part derived from Northumbrian Old English, with various admixtures including from Scandinavia.
The versions of English spoken in Northern England also had a large input from Norse due to the Dane Law period, and that is part of what drove the change to modern English.
That said, in viewing un-dubbed (but subtitled) Dutch, Belgium, and Swedish TV programs, I have been surprised by the amount I get the gist of directly from the speech. Generally from the core Germanic portion of the languages. Belgium was also interesting due to the occasional mix of stock French phrases and words.
There were a non trivial quantity of 'English' words used, and usually for identical meaning, or a similar gloss.
Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
And yet they tax individuals on our revenues and not our profits …
People don't really have "profits". You could argue that some amount of money people make is used to pay for food, shelter etc and then treat the rest as "profit". In that case a progressive income tax system does tax individuals on "profit" because the first dollars you earn are either not taxed or taxed at a very low rate.
I sell my labor on the market for as much money as I can get for that labor. I do this for the same reason a business is formed to provide for myself, my family, and to enjoy my life
This is the entire purpose of the "Standard Deduction" as that is viewed by the IRS as the "cost of living", and in their view it would be to complicated and allow for too much tax evasion if they allowed you to itemize every cost of living you had. Personally I think that is excused just to over tax people.
One should be able to deduct on an itemized schedule every grocery bill, every utility, even housing from their income taxes. Paying only taxes on that income they earned above and beyond the "Needs" of a person.
Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
#324My take on this is that Ireland is now willing to come into compliance because post-Brexit, they now have a monopoly on "urban core that could sustain an HQ for multinationals in a natively-English-speaking country in the EU." In other words, they relied on tax advantages as a differentiator for companies to choose Dublin over London for their EU HQ. But now, what would you choose if not Dublin? Obviously Paris and B…
I don't think you realize which Ireland you are talking about. There's Éire which is the Republic and there is also Northern Ireland, which is the UK bit in Britain. If UKoGBnNI decided to set a low tax rate ...
The name of the state is not the Republic of Ireland - that is the description of the state.
Additionally, we don't call Ireland Éire unless we're conversing in the Irish language.
Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having lived in the Netherlands (Eindhoven - not even Amsterdam) I can confirm that the English spoken there was superior to the English I was raised in in rural Ontario where my teachers said "warshing" instead of washing. The Dutch have an incredibly faculty for language and I admire it.
I'm from the UK and whilst working with a handful of dutch, I was blown away not only by their extremely good english but also their ability to understand and the subitle aspects of english - eg comedy/ sarcasium/ passive aggresstion etc..
Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
#326Earlier 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/
That’s a non-trivial issue.
Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
The French invented the term "Chauvinism" :) A big difference between the larger and smaller EU countries though is unrelated. The smallest countries don't have the budget for dubbing movies and TV series. This really helps with English proficiency in the smaller countries such as the Netherlands.
The Dutch are extremely proficient in English because they teach their children in it from 8 years old. And have been doing it since at least the 80s. So while what you're saying is technically true, a lot of shows were only subtitled instead of being dubbed, it is also factually false, that is not the main reason for the proficiency.
I do think the subtitling really helps with proficiency though. School can only teach you so much. Consider Ireland where people get taught the Irish language for 12 years and hardly speak it.
The understanding of different accents, slang, drunken conversation etc can only happen with exposure to native speakers. Content in the original language really helps with that.
Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
#328My take on this is that Ireland is now willing to come into compliance because post-Brexit, they now have a monopoly on "urban core that could sustain an HQ for multinationals in a natively-English-speaking country in the EU." In other words, they relied on tax advantages as a differentiator for companies to choose Dublin over London for their EU HQ. But now, what would you choose if not Dublin? Obviously Paris and B…
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…
I'm sure soft power pressure from the EU was a big factor in this, sure. But they weren't forced to as such.
Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's worth mentioning that I'm Ireland most schools teach in Irish, not English.
You must be thinking of an area with an unusually high number of Gaelscoils! Speaking as a former Irish language teacher in a English speaking school in Ireland (now a software engineer in a tech multinational), I don't think most schools teach in Irish, not English. Perhaps you meant it the other way round? 2019 Irish Times: "Number of primary school pupils taught through Irish at record level". Article notes that I…
But indeed Galway is exceptionally focused on Irish. I didn't know the rest of the country was different. Sorry for that.
I did notice that most Irish people have almost no grasp of the Irish language at all, which I found very weird because everyone is forced to learn it for many years (12 even according to one colleague)
Re: Ireland joins OECD International Tax agreement
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
All that money we spent on roads has locked us into car-dependent infrastructure, killing 40k+/year directly and hundreds of thousands indirectly (air pollution, etc). Great job us.
I still don't see private corporations building better public infrastructure. You get the quality of government you deserve. Remove corruption and regulate lobbying and donations and government money will be spent more effectively.