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Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

projekte.sueddeutsche.de

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Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#91

Post by greyman »

mindw0rk wrote: post #4

The point about Apple hiring best graduates who got their education mostly free of charge cause of all the tax payers really shift my mind about the whole tax-avoidance thing.

> The point about Apple hiring best graduates who got their education mostly free of charge cause of all the tax payers really shift my mind about the whole tax-avoidance thing.

Yes, that's true, but another angle is, that when the corporation profits are very high, let's say $40B yearly, then at 20% profit tax they should pay $5B. And that looks like a too high, government didn't spend nearly that much on providing stuff to Apple, per year (it's like $500K per one employee per year, if the company has 10K employes, for example).

Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#92

Post by lucozade »

As the "editor-in-chief of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s leading daily", why not do something?

I don't mean complain, that's already happening, I mean actually do something.

For example, ban all Apple products from the paper. Lobby the German government to ban all Apple products until Apple pay a sufficient amount of tax. Use the paper's influence to get people to stop using Apple's services. That sort of something.

If not, then why not? Is it possibly that you don't really care? It's just a fun story that helps circulation a bit. Or, maybe, that you don't believe that you'll get much support and having a campaign that fails is bad for circulation?

Possibly it's because this would have a direct negative effect on you and yours and, well, we wouldn't want that.

Personally, I'm fine if you don't do anything but complain as protecting your circulation and your convenience is a perfectly reasonable thing.

But don't be surprised that nothing changes.

Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#93

Post by Maarten88 »

dontreact wrote: post #61
wjnc wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The second one: Taxes are not moral for a corporation, they are a cost and a compliance concern. A world where even tax seeking corporations do not hold tax offices to the letter of the law and the deals they make is a lot more messy than one where corporations follow a clear line: min(Tax | Law abiding). Governments should fix this. I would call this the Peter Drucker way of looking at this. Morality (let's call it…

I no longer believe that it's possible for a single government to fix this. There is too much money in the game, the tax codes of multiple countries interact in too many complex ways, and I've already lived through multiple such tax loophole games being shut down by governments (most recently the double irish) only for new ones to crop up. I believe we will _never_ see change on this issue unless at least 1 large mul…

What if governments of large countries such as Germany (or the whole EU) would base the corporation tax simply on the total profit, divided by the revenue share of the country?

For large public multinational corporations it is very easy to approximate how much they should pay in any country, when you just wouldn't accept the transfer pricing tricks that they use to move the profits around.

Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#94

Post by martin_a »

DoctorPenguin wrote: post #65

That really hurt to read. What I get from this article is: "I use apple products every day and now I feel bad for using them. But I won't stop anyways because who cares really. Please do anything to make your company less profitable so I can feel better again."

You obviously misread it. Try again.

Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#95

Post by erickj »

sschueller wrote: post #86
styx31 wrote: post #80

What annoys me the most is that, as a small company, I can't evade from my country tax system. I pay the taxes. All of them, at full rate. But there are these big companies which can afford to create offshore companies/holding just to evade some tax system, and lower their tax rate. So, what? The tax rate of a country is now "artificial", because it will never be applied to all revenues from all companies, because th…

Same goes for US individuals living abroad not having any business relations or even holdings in the US. Yet they are required to file and pay US taxes in addition to local taxes.

Moving abroad, I now fully understand the feeling behind "Taxation without representation is tyranny".

Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#96

Post by patrickaljord »

styx31 wrote: post #80

What annoys me the most is that, as a small company, I can't evade from my country tax system. I pay the taxes. All of them, at full rate. But there are these big companies which can afford to create offshore companies/holding just to evade some tax system, and lower their tax rate. So, what? The tax rate of a country is now "artificial", because it will never be applied to all revenues from all companies, because th…

Apple do pay their taxes just like you for everything they sell in the US. It's what they sell outside of the US that they don't pay, but they do pay in those other countries. The biggest unfair advantage they have against you is if you sell to overseas markets (you're paying US tax, not them) but if your market is US only then Apple isn't paying less than you are.

Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#97

Post by [deleted] »

sschueller wrote: post #86
styx31 wrote: post #80

What annoys me the most is that, as a small company, I can't evade from my country tax system. I pay the taxes. All of them, at full rate. But there are these big companies which can afford to create offshore companies/holding just to evade some tax system, and lower their tax rate. So, what? The tax rate of a country is now "artificial", because it will never be applied to all revenues from all companies, because th…

Same goes for US individuals living abroad not having any business relations or even holdings in the US. Yet they are required to file and pay US taxes in addition to local taxes.

[deleted]

Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#98

Post by jansho »

Genuine question. Are there actual large, profitable companies which are tax responsible? I.e. companies that follow ethical accounting practices to minimise their tax and none of the dodgy off-shoring stuff

Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#99

Post by nickpp »

styx31 wrote: post #80

What annoys me the most is that, as a small company, I can't evade from my country tax system. I pay the taxes. All of them, at full rate. But there are these big companies which can afford to create offshore companies/holding just to evade some tax system, and lower their tax rate. So, what? The tax rate of a country is now "artificial", because it will never be applied to all revenues from all companies, because th…

By default, big companies always get preferential treatment from governments. Open a mega-factory? They get tax cuts, cheap real estate, free utilities. Why? Those shiny new jobs look great on a politician's resume for the next election...

What does the little business guy get? A letter of "don't forget to pay your taxes in full or else"

It's time to accept the fact that governments are NOT a fair and impartial warden of the economy. Therein lies the problem. Reducing their power of meddling in the economy is the solution.

Re: Paradise Papers: Dear Tim Cook

#100

Post by hackerguy99 »

sschueller wrote: post #86
styx31 wrote: post #80

What annoys me the most is that, as a small company, I can't evade from my country tax system. I pay the taxes. All of them, at full rate. But there are these big companies which can afford to create offshore companies/holding just to evade some tax system, and lower their tax rate. So, what? The tax rate of a country is now "artificial", because it will never be applied to all revenues from all companies, because th…

Same goes for US individuals living abroad not having any business relations or even holdings in the US. Yet they are required to file and pay US taxes in addition to local taxes.

When it hits the fan, and you want to come back to the US for safety, unmolested, you'll be able to. Should that be free?
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