DaGaffer
Down With That Sorta Thing
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Messages
- 18,393
Tax law changes are being mooted. But right now we're "surprised" that Microsoft is earning most of the GDP of Ireland and not paying tax on it.
We've had expose after expose, the panama papers etc. etc. etc. Years and years of diligent work by undercover reporters - who face threats to their lives in some cases - to uncover the murky and opaque dealings.
Cryptocurrencies potentially remove all that opacity - they're open ledgers. Try and get a single bank to open it's ledger up to you. Whereas you can read the records of every single transaction.
So not only do crypto's solve the problem of hidden funding, hoarding and money transfers - they also allow automated and full enforcing of the laws. You could do away with nearly every single tax investigator, lots of the regulatory bodies - you could almost do "tax as a service" electronically.
Even if you had transparency as you describe, you'd only get to the point where you can call out these companies on the grounds of good citizenship and ethics, because they're not actually breaking the law.
It's interesting in that article that we get:
guardian said:Tax transparency campaigners described the “tax aggression displayed by Microsoft, and facilitated by Ireland” as “beyond belief”.
but the real issue here isn't Ireland, is the ability to be tax resident in Bermuda, with zero tax liability. Last time I checked, Bermuda was a British Overseas Territory.
Unless you very explicitly outlaw the specific recharging processes used by corporates to offset profit taking in zero tax territories, then you're always going to have this problem, and if you do enable such rules its just like playing whack-a-mole; there'll be another route along in a minute. So what can you do? Tax on revenue? No, its a disaster and creates barriers to entry for new business. So how about you sanction zero rate tax territories altogether? Any territory with zero tax rates can't export its money out of its own jurisdiction. You can have all the tax free money you want. But you can't spend it anywhere else.