On Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:49:11 +0100, picolax
<[email protected]> wrote:
it seems the basic argument expressed by those who support google's tax
evasion/avoidance (and don't hit me with semantics, they are both the
same
it's just one is artificially within the law) is that seeing as the
Sigh, what a pile of confusion. They are very different and the lack of
seeing that difference is, IMO, the signal of the wrong instruments used
for analyzing the thing, and they can lead to dangerous consequences.
First, you're presuming that there's a thing like the "right" quantity of
money that Google (or others) should be paid to the UK (or another
country). How would you compute it? It's in the will of God? In the
numbers of Kabbalah? It's a function of some physics constants? None of
this, and of course the precise quantity is not even a matter of moral.
The taxation level is just a matter of convenience. Each country decide
and set it in its own laws. That is, the amount must be computed by laws.
Now, the point is that laws fail to determine a single number; instead
they determine a range. Figure out, once you're in the range everybody
tries to purse the lower limit. The only reason for which normal people
don't do that is that in simpler cases it costs more to figure out the
thing than the advantage you'd get, while in the case of a large corporate
it's different.
Second point, there's not only Google. Newspapers are talking of Facebook,
Amazon, and others. Yes, you're right that Google wrote that stupid motto
"Don't be evil" and the fault of pretending to be moral is theirs. I've
said this a long time ago. This is the only failure from them in this
case. The fact that there are multiple companies (in partial competition)
is imporant. In fact, if I owe company A and I have a competitor B, and
let's suppose we're equally skilled and have the same earnings, etc... and
company B applies for a strategy to avoid taxes, and I don't do, my
company will suffer some disadvantage in the competition not due to the
skills. In the end, if the difference is large, A could even fail. At this
point I have just to recall the obligations of A's stakeholders with
respect to people who invested in A and A's employeers.
Third point. Let's just focus on Europe: there are countries who apply tax
rates lower than others. For instance, Ireland has been famous for
attracting big companies with low tax rates. Recently, I've read of many
rich people moving out from France to Belgium to avoid the new super-rich
taxes introduced by Mr. Hollande. I've just mentioned these two countries
as an example, of course. Now, consider that this is perfectly legal,
since Ireland and Belgium have the right to decide their own tax rates.
Figure out, I've read positions by politicians shouting against the
"immorality" of Ireland and Belgium. So, what? What should we do to fix
this? Declare war to Ireland and Belgium? Do you see the dangerous
consequences of this type of reasoning?
The point should be back with politics. It's a matter of a country policy
to decide what's the proper taxation level and possibly have a simple
taxation policy which doesn't leave room for ambiguity. It's also
perfectly ok when a country carries on the debate with moral suasion, as
it's perfectly legal, so if, as you say, a company discovers that this
morals suasion destroys its image and revenues, and it decides to seek for
an agreement to a different taxation, it's still ok. For what concerns
different countries, it's a matter of the European Union to decide what's
the precise model of this union (it seems nobody knows) and define it in
legal terms.
In the meantime, laws will continue to make the difference, so the debate
is civil, Google has the right to pay UK taxes as low as possible, Ireland
has the right to attract investors with low taxation levels, and french
rich people has the right to move out to Belgium.
--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect @ Tidalwave s.a.s.
"We make Java work. Everywhere."
http://tidalwave.it/fabrizio/blog - [email protected]
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