business

Amazon may prove exception to global tax rules

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Amazon's country director for Italy and Spain, Mariangela Marseglia, declared herself "very happy" with the deal reached by finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven wealthy states over the weekend.

She said it adopts "a uniform approach to the taxation of multinational companies (which) is what we have been trying to pursue for a long time."

If corporations are happy about the new tax plan, this is the first bad sign. It usually means they were involved in the drafting of the legislation and there are some exclusive loopholes and marginalia that will increase their oligopoly and protect their profit margins.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

When did we vote for this?

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Just wow, unbelievable, the one company that needs to be scrutinized gets a pass

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

When did we vote for this?

Articles regarding this tax never seem to mention the fact that legislatures of a lot of nations are going to have to approve these new taxes and their national executives have to sigh off on them for them to become law. It is not guaranteed to happen. Some nations surely will but what the problem will be a bunch of self governing British possessions that have become tax havens such as Bermuda and Gibraltar, that are under no obligation to adopt these new tax rules as their own law.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Just wow, unbelievable, the one company that needs to be scrutinized gets a pass

Companies should be taxed by each nation based on the profits they earn in that nation selling goods or provide a service. This way each nation can tax the business conducted in their nation regardless of where the company puts their headquarters. Companies would be required to publish their revenues and expenses for each market so they can be taxed accordingly.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Well, does that at least mean we will get free shipping from Amazon USA?

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

the big companies are happy with it because the governments will always battle each other to attract them. With tax exemptions or subsidies compensating potential taxes, so the level of the tax does not matter. Wetter you do not pay 5%, 15% or 30 % , the end result is zero tax

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Shifting money between subsidiaries in a corporation isn't hard. Just have certain tax-haven location charge for their required services sufficiently to mandate the transfer of money out of high-tax countries. Happens all the time.

Corporate tax attorneys who don't minimize the taxes paid world-wide are failing the stock holders. If the BoD and C-Suite don't hire competent corporate tax attorneys, then they will be fired too.

That's the corporate mandate. If countries don't like this, then laws to prevent it must be passed. Then there will be 2 types of companies. Those who pay their fair share and those who relocate to tax havens to keep the game going. The tax haven countries need to be strongly encouraged to choose to follow the same rules by the larger countries under threat of sanctions. Kill off any direct trade to those tax havens, no direct shipping or flights - perhaps a surcharge for access to European and US banks too to cover the believed taxes not being paid.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Time to get the VP to look into the root causes of tax evasion.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Saw an image of a truck today that had a picture of a laughing Jeff Bezos and the words "Tax me if you can".

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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