At 18:46 24/11/2012, you wrote:
(REH) People who pay taxes are doing a patriotic thing.
(KH) True, but it doesn't mean that those who pay more taxes than are legally required are, somehow, even more patriotic than the norm. Do you know anybody who pays more taxes than he needs to?
(REH) Corporations who pay taxes are giving back for the services they get from a society. It's moral.
(KH) The only corporations who receive net benefits from society as such by its mere existence (in contrast to society when defined as collections of individual consumers) are property corporations taking advantage of city or other infrastructure growth or corporations that negotiate privileges from government (often without the broad mass of society knowing nothing about it.
(REH) The answer to not paying taxes is to make nothing. Or give it all away. Otherwise, if you wish to be a participating member of society, you owe rent.
(KH) I don't understand you here. Keith
REH -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2012 9:21 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, , EDUCATION Subject: [Futurework] Crocodile tears from Treasury Departments The UK Treasury Department are getting intio atizz about firms with UK operations like Google, Facebook and Apple (among many more) which have been able to evade large tranches of corporation taxes (though the firms pay National Insurance and personal income taxes). We (the tax-paying public) are supposed to infer that the directors of these businesses suffer from a moral lapse. The UK Treasury Department could stop such tax evasion quite easily by writing clear law in the first place. One reason is that it needs to establish some 'escape routes' for those firms the government actually want to favour (usually including defence companies. Another reason is that all Treasury Departments are competing with others in other countries and can't afford to make their taxation schedules too easy to understand because they'll be directly undermined by others. Yet another reason is that, increasingly in recent years, senior Treasury personnel have been retiring early and thus taking their knowledge of the current hyper-complex taxation system and its escape routes with them. Many of these personnel then become consultants to many of the largest companies which have continuing issues with their Treasury Departments. Will the present type of taxation system ever end? No. It's too convenient to Treasury Departments and, more recently, their most senior personnel who will no doubt retire at the first opportunity. As long as countries tax incomes of individuals and businesses and not expenditures then taxation will become increasingly complex and thus evadable so long as there are experts on tap. Keith _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
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