This logic is incorrect because it will just punish people for their choices.
Agree.
www.theguardian.com
Musk will find any significant savings identified by DOGE very hard to action. There are four big ticket items in the US budget: Health, Social security, Defence, and debt interest.
He'll want to embezzle more cash to Space X - Probably claim it's official defence spending and direct some of their funds to him.
That's an argument for removing corporate tax, not for allowing a handful of businesses to avoid corporate taxes while everyone else has to pay them. Trump constantly bangs on about Chinese companies undercutting US companies with illegal state aid, while US companies go around the world using countries' infrastructure while contributing nothing towards it. And because they contribute nothing to taxes, they are able to provide it for cheaper, and outcompete local businesses that don't have the luxury of being able to dodge taxes by putting their head office in Switzerland or Luxembourg. In those circumstances, I have absolutely no issue with laws that force Starbucks, Amazon, etc, to raise their prices, because those prices reflect the actual cost of doing business in the UK when you actually pay your way.
I don't really know what the answer is because you've said it yourself. If Amazon locates its transactions in Luxembourg then what can we in the UK do about it given those transactions sit outside the UK? Such a thing would require a more pan-continental tax rules system but that's never going to work. It will be literally impossible with Trump in power in the US, he'll probably slap 100% tariffs on anybody who imposes such a thing upon US companies.
minnjil.org
Luxembourg needs to be reigned in by the EU, as do Ireland and the Netherlands with the dodgy tax schemes. The ridiculous situation here is this idea that countries of 70 million people are powerless against some country of 600k or even less. It's just absolutely ridiculous that these tiny countries can essentially steal tax revenue from the biggest countries in the world and get away with it because of some bullshit 'free trade' rules. Luxembourg's 'preferable jurisdiction' is all well and good, but why the fuck should anyone else have to recognise that? The idea that a company can just set up in some tax haven and everyone else has to say "Oh right, fair enough" rather than "Ok, we're going to impose a 70% tax on all revenues going from our country to that jurisdiction" is bullshit. It's clearly done in bad faith, so tariffs should be introduced in similarly bad faith. Obviously I know it's not as simple as that, but it's also a lot simpler that we're led to believe. It's not complicated to do, the complicated bit is convincing a bunch of politicians who have been bought and paid for by corporations, many of whom benefit from the same tax schemes themselves, to actually take the problem seriously. And obviously Donald Trump is the last person who'll do anything about it.I don't really know what the answer is because you've said it yourself. If Amazon locates its transactions in Luxembourg then what can we in the UK do about it given those transactions sit outside the UK? Such a thing would require a more pan-continental tax rules system but that's never going to work. It will be literally impossible with Trump in power in the US, he'll probably slap 100% tariffs on anybody who imposes such a thing upon US companies.
There is a reason why Amazon are located in Luxembourg. It's because Luxembourg itself agreed to some form of preferable jurisdiction that Amazon can operate within. Resolving this problem would require Luxembourg to undo this and I can't see why they'd do that because why do it in the first place?
The real question is can world governments really beat the likes of KPMG and the big consultancies who are paid specifically by companies to find ways around taxes? I don't think they can because it's too complicated and there are too many countries and jurisdictions with their own ideas involved. If governments did eventually act then companies will just move on or adapt so they don't stand a chance.
Project Goldcrest, Amazon’s Elaborate Tax Arrangement - Minnesota Journal of International Law
By Charlie Ryu, Staff Member In 2017, Amazon had a great year; it announced the opening of a second headquarters, inviting numerous biddings from many city governments and officials[1], bought Whole Foods for approximately $14 billion[2], and its stock price grew by 56%[3].[4] However, despite...