What I love though is how they make it seem that Google "avoided" paying a British tax bill.
No, Google looked at corporate tax rates in the EU and said, "To hell with all you high-tax socialist places, we're going to Ireland where it's 12.5%." Google set up its subsidiary in Ireland and "avoided, schemed, side-stepped" nothing.
Google PAID the Irish government its taxes. It never owe or was behooved to Britain for anything.
Welcome to "capital flight." The leftist's worst nightmare.
But Google cannot do that! Quick! England needs to re-annex Ireland!
ReplyDeleteGiven that leftism, socialism, and to some extent feminist ideology are related:
ReplyDeletecapital flight == marriage strike.
Cappy, I wouldn't get too excited. Like all socialists, they don't want their own rules to apply to themselves. Google would gladly trap regular folks into socialist taxes while they skirt them.
ReplyDeleteThe OECD has for years been trying to stamp out "harmful tax competition". While they've mostly been targeting the Carribbean, Ireland could be their first first-world target. I know lots of tech companies have offices in Ireland because of the low taxes and quality English-speaking workers.
ReplyDeleteStrictly speaking, companies don’t (necessarily) flee high tax regions for lower-tax regions. What they do is flee high tax regions that offer poor (no) value for the tax money spent. The problem is that most social programs are horribly mismanaged, run massive deficits which lead to a large portion of tax money being spent on interest, and (overall) have very poor outcomes; and to make matters worse, a large portion of programs offer little/no benefit to these businesses even if they were well run. When you combine these factors, companies are expected to pay 40% tax to get inferior services to what they could get for 10% of their income in a free market.
ReplyDeleteNow, I don’t believe that government run programs have to necessarily be poorly managed; but until people demand that all social programs offer tangible benefits with measurable outcomes with full transparency and accountability it is how government programs will continue to work.
This is behavior I hope to imitate. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteAlmost everyone is a capitalist when it is their own money being confiscated
ReplyDeleteLove Google. Love Ireland. Now they're working together to give some ignorant EU politicians a few lessons in basic economics.
ReplyDeleteThe leftists think that their countries are so great that no sane person would consider going to other countries. That's why they always think you owe them something.
ReplyDeleteGoogle isn't capitalist, just greedy hypocrites.
ReplyDeleteThey are Clinton raising taxes but claiming tax deductions for his old underwear.
They are Al Gore fighting against Global Warming while flying a private jet around the world.
They are Warren Buffet expressing support for the death tax on the very same day he puts a sizable portion of his wealth into a trust which will avoid just such a tax.
The defining characteristic of liberalism is self-hatred, but the instincts of self-preservation and self-interest overcome their suicidal instincts. No liberal would wish to live in the world they would create if they could. Their rules are meant for other people, not themselves.