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Is tax avoidance ethical? Asking on behalf of a few billionaire friends

11 Comments
By Erin Bass

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Sounds like an argument for a flat tax, or better yet, a sales tax with exceptions for basic food, clothing, health care, and housing.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Tax avoidance is perfectly ethical. As ethical as mandatory taxes, government spending, and government services .

Tax evasion is illegal, as opposed to avoidance. So avoidance is your option as someone that generates revenue and profits. If there is an ethical issue with tax laws, then change them.

Assuming that tax laws are even ethical in the first place.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I try to avoid as many taxes as I can. Don't you?

I just don't have the advantages of well-paid tax advisors to set me up like the billionaires.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Is unethical behavior ethical? Do you have to ask?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Avoidance is legal, evasion is illegal.

The fault lies with our inept legislators who draft such unnecessarily complex tax laws allowing corporate tax lawyers to drive a coach and horses through them.

Keep tax laws simple, remove all the exceptions and special cases and concentrate enforcement proportionately on large companies.

Morality doesn’t come in to tax law, all tax is an extraction imposed on society, be it for good or bad reasons.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

BigYenToday  07:43 pm JST

The question is not whether tax avoidance is legal or illegal. The question is whether tax avoidance is ethical. Avoiding one’s responsibility to contribute to the running of your society is unethical. End of story.

It's a little more nuanced than that, I think. If a tax is excessive or is merely instituted to advantage a particular political party with dubious merit to society in general, then it's not really ethical. So avoiding such a tax is not necessarily unethical.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Taxation laws in USA are created by the rich and the corporations for themselves and not serve the everyday Americans. There are enough loop holes created for the rich and the corporations to not pay any or little taxes.

Corporation and taxes for rich can be very high but it does not matter as they do not pay it. It's meaningless.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Cash in hand, nod & a wink... no tax. That's the Poor guys way... though some Commercial organizations are catching on these days, and doing the same - though without that friendly nod & wink.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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