Comment Re:mountains of diamonds (Score 1) 365
Diamonds are among the MOST common of the gemstones
I believe they were rare once, but new mines were found in late Victorian times making them fairly abundant.
Diamonds are among the MOST common of the gemstones
I believe they were rare once, but new mines were found in late Victorian times making them fairly abundant.
Can the next release make these billionaires go broke? Thanks
Maybe the reason they are billionaires in the first place is because they used the cheat codes
We would never expect an individual to not take a tax deduction or child credit etc. because they have "courage".
People need those things just to live and keep a roof over their heads. Paying the tax you really owe as a company is not equivalent to rejecting desperately needed child support.
I have no problem with Apple doing legal tax avoidance
I do. Just because something is legal, it doesn't mean it's ok. When governments don't have the cash they need, they have to cut back on essential services that we all use and people can die as a result.
If they're doing something illegal, that's another issue
This may well be the case with Apple and Ireland.
But let's not slam a corporation that is legally following tax law. Instead, let's slam legislators and encourage legislation to close tax loopholes and simplify the tax code.
Well, yes, governments are to blame for the loopholes, but companies use their might to push for those loopholes to exist. Very often they write the legislation that government enacts.. Also, companies do not just use their influence when it comes to legislation, they also use their power to "capture" relevant agencies. We've had this in the UK with our revenue collection agency, HMRC. There seems to be a revolving door between them and the very companies they are "struggling" to collect tax from. The previous head of HMRC let Vodaphone and Goldman Sachs off paying billions in tax and lied to the Commons Select Committee. He also protected HSBC from fraud charges in Switzerland and then went to work for them.
Perhaps we could have some kind of tax star rating, a bit like Michelin Stars. Smaller companies that can't use complicated tax avoidance would be proud to display their 5 star tax rating and it may give them an advantage over 1-Star major corporations. Imagine two adjacent coffee shops and only one has a 5-star rating. It may have enough of an effect that tax avoiders start losing money as a result.
Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine. -- Andy Warhol