Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

icij.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 459 posts

Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#51

Post by gaius »

rothbardrand wrote: post #46
cisanti wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But corporations do like to paint themselves as moral and fighting for you! Another thing is why people believe in it... All in all, there are many things that are not illegal to do, but definitely immoral. Such tax schemes sure are immoral in my eyes, I'm a hard-core capitalist, but no way your average Joe stands a chance at "optimizing" taxes. People need to call out these companies more, but it's easy to deceive t…

You invoked morality. The moral calculus is pretty clear to me: I’ll take the gay loving advancer of technology over governments stealing money to use it to blow up people any day. Apple has the moral high ground, and that ground is higher the less taxes they pay. Remember military spending is far more than roads.

Military spending got you the Internet, GPS, jet engines, microwave ovens and a million more things that you take for granted ...

Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#52

Post by charlesdm »

mtgx wrote: post #50
mrleiter wrote: post #33

It's the wrong angle. One should not look at corporations as the moral saviours. As Supreme Court Judge Learned Hand once said: "Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing 851*851 sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, n…

Which is more likely to "go after" the queen of England? The UK government, or the UK people? I would say the latter, which is why it's the correct angle in this case.

The fact that she put money in an offshore investment fund doesn't mean she's avoiding UK tax. The same investment could be structured through a UK structure with the same tax outcome.

Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#53

Post by mempko »

pyrale wrote: post #48
mrleiter wrote: post #33

It's the wrong angle. One should not look at corporations as the moral saviours. As Supreme Court Judge Learned Hand once said: "Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing 851*851 sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, n…

> It's the wrong angle. One should not look at corporations as the moral saviours. [...] Rather, it is the governments of the world we should be going at if we want this behaviour to change. Let us pretend that corporations have no influence over laws and governments, and merely play a game they had no hand in designing.

Bingo. This a million Times.

Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#54

Post by noobermin »

rothbardrand wrote: post #46
cisanti wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But corporations do like to paint themselves as moral and fighting for you! Another thing is why people believe in it... All in all, there are many things that are not illegal to do, but definitely immoral. Such tax schemes sure are immoral in my eyes, I'm a hard-core capitalist, but no way your average Joe stands a chance at "optimizing" taxes. People need to call out these companies more, but it's easy to deceive t…

You invoked morality. The moral calculus is pretty clear to me: I’ll take the gay loving advancer of technology over governments stealing money to use it to blow up people any day. Apple has the moral high ground, and that ground is higher the less taxes they pay. Remember military spending is far more than roads.

You say it as if Russian oligarchs don't kill people, or corporations don't kill people. They have and do.

Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#58

Post by pyoung »

nodesocket wrote: post #19
cletus wrote: post #6

I can't help but think of the GOP's tax "reform" that is a hot topic in the US right now. I say "reform" because there's absolutely no reform about it. It's a tax cut for billionaires bought and paid for by the GOP donor class. The paranoia of religious conservatives certainly elected the GOP but make no mistake: they don't give a shit about anyone but the donor class, often personified by the Koch brothers. The carr…

> It's a tax cut for billionaires bought and paid for by the GOP donor class I am a small business owner setup as a LLC single member company and the new cap will be a positive for me. It will reduce my tax burden allowing me to buy more software from companies, hire, expand, increase advertising spending, etc. I am a very real case, and there are lots of other small business owners like me who are certainly not bill…

There is nothing hypocritical about opposing a tax 'reform' plan that adds $1.5 TRILLION to the deficit, doubly so if this bill raises my taxes. If my tax burden goes up to pay for government programs, than I am generally (but not unconditionally) okay with that. But if my tax burden goes up so that billionaires and corporations can get a tax cut while also negatively impacting the financial health of our country, than it would be absurd not to strongly oppose the reform bill.

Instead of supporting this irresponsible piece of legislation, how about getting in touch with your local representatives and let them know that you believe that the tax burden on small businesses needs to be addressed, but that this particular piece of legislation is not the way to do it.

Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#59

Post by geofft »

wu-ikkyu wrote: post #26

It's funny how the people of Russia and the US are framed as being such great enemies when in reality many of the rulers of both countries have more common interests with each other than they do with the citizens of their own nations.

We have always been at war with Eurasia^WEastasia.

Re: Paradise Papers: New leak from offshore finance firm

#60

Post by cletus »

_bfhp wrote: post #9
cletus wrote: post #6

I can't help but think of the GOP's tax "reform" that is a hot topic in the US right now. I say "reform" because there's absolutely no reform about it. It's a tax cut for billionaires bought and paid for by the GOP donor class. The paranoia of religious conservatives certainly elected the GOP but make no mistake: they don't give a shit about anyone but the donor class, often personified by the Koch brothers. The carr…

The GOP is beyond corrupt -- would you agree the focus should be on improving the Democratic Party to be formidable again?

Honestly the Democrats aren't much better. I can point the finger in many directions here:

1. The Clinton stranglehold (first Bill then Hilary) on the DNC was absolute to the point with Hilary off the stage there's a vacuum and no real leadership contenders. That I think was largely by design. Hilary didn't want a repeat of the 2008 nomination;

2. Obama seemed to either not care of was ineffective in shaping the party. After eight years in office it was still Clinton's party;

3. The Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is really the Democratic senator from Wall Street and is one of the biggest defenders of the carried interest tax credit for hedge fund managers.

4. The Democrats have an ageing and increasingly out-of-touch ruling class. As just one example, Diane Feinstein has announced plans to seek reelection... at age 85. This means she'd be 91 at the end of her term.

5. I'm still ot sure the Democrats fully appreciate the anti-establishment wave that swept Trump into office and almost swept Sanders into the Democratic nomination.

Post reply on HN