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U.S. proposes 15% minimum tax on global corporate profits

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I quote: “corporate taxes are the most harmful type of tax for economic growth”

Source? The OECD itself.https://www.oecd.org/ctp/tax-policy/tax-policy-reform-and-economic-growth-9789264091085-en.htm

So the OECD would back an imposition of a minimum tax of a type found to be most harmful for growth.

The higher any minimum tax rate is set, the higher the chances of this tax cartel breaking down become. As countries drop out of such a scheme with inevitable changes of government, the global minimum would indeed then be caught in a global race to the bottom.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Excuse me I was incorrect to state the oecd has backed this loopy idea.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Long over due

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Way past time.

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Honest companies don't mind paying "their fair share." Many companies feel they have a duty to minimize all expenses and grow profits. That's what Wall Street demands, so they seek out every loop hole in every country world-wide to take advantage.

Companies that effectively pay ZERO tax in their corporate HQ countries because their tax lawyers are smart, are the main reason this is happening. https://itep.org/55-profitable-corporations-zero-corporate-tax/ Nike, ADM, FedEx, Dish-Network, and 51 others.

They all say they are paying the legally owed local, state and federal taxes. Tax codes around the world have loopholes designed for specific reasons, but able to be used by companies not intended to use them. A simple fix is to remove all loopholes for companies with over $1B in revenue - forget profits. Those can be manipulated almost at will. They certainly don't need tax deals to cover CEO pay.

The idea of corporate taxes makes little sense as long as individuals pay taxes. One or the other. I can't speak for other countries, but I spend probably 200 hrs on my taxes every year between company record keeping, consultation with accountants, and my personal taxes with investment decisions. As long as personal taxes are more than 1 page total (no worksheets needed), they are just too complex. Why should any individual need an accountant to handle their over-complex taxes. Individuals should be taxed through sales, not income.

Of course, every CPA would disagree.

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Lets follow the west. If every country is doing it now. it must be okay.... The Japanese Way!

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Individuals should be taxed through sales, not income.

Of course, every CPA would disagree.

Sales tax is a great idea at first, but it disproportionately impacts lower income earners. Having only a sales tax would increase class disparity. The rich would always be rich, and the poor would always be poor.

That result is already happening. Wealth itself has more political power to support the creation and ability to maintain that wealth. So, the tax rules favor the wealthy.

So, you could add, every politician would disagree because they benefit from keeping wealthy people wealthy.

The complexity of tax rules is also because the main job of the tax rules is not just generating revenue for the government. It has also been used to affect economic policy. The best examples are deductions allowed for home ownership. Remove that deduction, then home sales would crash until they stabilized, assuming that the financial industry itself didn't crash before it stabilized. Business arrangements are also complex and a simple tax code would not reflect economic realities, so there would be vast differences in taxes collected from sophisticated and less sophisticated businesses.

I've never seen a simple solution to reducing the complexity of taxes. OK, maybe a universal wealth tax on individuals but it would have to be uniformly applied otherwise people would just move their wealth to the lowest tax location. You would also have the problem of tax cheats undervaluing their wealth. HMM, I believe there is an investigation in NY of a wealthy person doing just that.

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Honest companies don't mind paying "their fair share." Many companies feel they have a duty to minimize all expenses and grow profits.

Let’s be clear that companies are just people cooperating together for a shared purpose.

That's what Wall Street demands,

And by Wall Street we mean the people own own those companies and tell its employees what to do.

so they seek out every loop hole in every country world-wide to take advantage.

It is the politicians who put loopholes into tax codes :) Those politicians are just acting in a way that they perceive to be in their own self-interest too.

A simple fix is to remove all loopholes for companies with over $1B in revenue - forget profits.

Even simpler would simply be a flat tax rate on profits, they exact same for all companies (people), no special privilege for anyone.

Individuals should be taxed through sales, not income.

I like that.

Sales tax is a great idea at first, but it disproportionately impacts lower income earners. 

The tax system is only one side of the coin, it doesn’t make sense to view it in isolation. The taxes are subsequently spent, and if lower income earners were the sole recipients of the transfer payments made by the expenditure side, they would absolutely be net beneficiaries of the overall system, and more so the bigger the tax revenue generating economic pie is.

Having only a sales tax would increase class disparity. The rich would always be rich, and the poor would always be poor. 

I don’t follow this logic - this result happens even in the absence of sales tax in places like the US where the tax system is also very progressive. It doesn’t have anything to do with sales taxes as far as I can see.

And if you fancy things like wealth taxes, note that Sweden abolished its inheritance gift and wealth taxes back in the 00’s because they were so problematic and a net negative for the country (the entire Swedish parliament voted to abolish the inheritance tax). And Sweden is by no means the first.

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The next step will be a minimum income tax on everyone.

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Who receives the Tax ?

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This is, o course, pie in the sky.

What is really being said, is that non-local Companies should be taxed locally within each Country at 15% base. without opportunity for relocating that tax dependency offshore other than that base 15%.

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Tax havens... may disagree.

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Not only tax havens, but the opposition parities of various nations who may decide to pull out of any such cartel agreements that incumbents decide to enter into.

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I love how the fair share crowd are always the ones who pay zero share and suck money for the productive people of the world. They are never charitable but ALWAYS expect others to be. They should be called the hypocrite consortium.

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I would love not to pay Tax when I disagree with the policies of the japanese Politicians. But then, you'd say, I can vote them out if I did not like them.... sadly that is not the case... .even though I am a permanent resident, I can not vote here in Japan, and because I am a permanent resident in Japan, I can not vote back home in my Country of Origin. So for me... Democracy is a figment of one's imagination.

Japan's Political corruption, in my view, is as bent, as most other Countries, they're all on the take in one way or another. However Japan remains a pretty safe place - perhaps due to the over restrictive immigration Policy. So... I don't want to rock the boat, and just hope I go about unnoticed.

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