Technically, the 'queen' should be above these rules...? She's the ruler-the one imposing, not paying

It's not just rich individuals - it's the corporations that bother me: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41889787

They reveal how Apple sidestepped a 2013 crackdown on its controversial Irish tax practices by actively shopping around for a tax haven.

There's no way this can be addressed unless there's a global effort to end tax havens.

goon wrote:

Yeah, I read that earlier. The funny thing is these corporations always sound so outraged that people think they're doing anything wrong. We should be greatful they're paying anything and that they create a few jobs apparently.

I would add, however, that this isn't restricted to international corporations either - SMEs and local traders actually account for the majority of the tax gap in the UK. Far more than rich individuals do.

Rich folk and corporations dodging taxes? Well now I've heard it all!

2013 we had the Offshore Leaks, 2014 it was Lux Leaks, 2015 Swiss Leaks and last year it was Panama. I'll go out on a limb and say other than short-lived half hearted outrage nothing will come out of this either. And nothing will ever come out of it as long as corporations, nations and societies still accept "tax minimisation" as some legal means to save money

I will say this though, it's good to see that absolute dickhead Bono mentioned by name yet again. This time his tax dodging scheme involves front companies in Malta and Guernsey and a shopping mall in fucking Latvia he really knows no shame does he the little snake prick

Mirth wrote:

There's no way this can be addressed unless there's a global effort to end tax havens.

Or boycott or price signal against the products and services of offending companies.

They aren't making any money off people with the will or the awareness to boycott, Burnsy. Global empire or nothing, it's the only way.

Yeah, "will" and "awareness" are just measures of the high threshold of entry to boycott action (more generally, the politics of value realisation) and the poor infrastructure available. Need to make it easier than voting.

"Global empire or nothing" is basically the Piketty trick—make something that's totally practically and politically untenable, like a "global wealth tax", seem otherwise because it's just as remote and poorly understood a concept as it is unlikely.

I was being sarcastic! We do need to rethink borders and the entire notion of localized taxation, though.

Of course you were!

But there's a lot of wishful thinking among "Empire" types who think suprastate structures like the EU are gradually going to swallow up more of the world. They're not resilient enough.

No, but I think part of that is that they rely on the nation state as a precondition for their own legitimacy. They are more like substructures if anything.

Multinational banks are more superstructural, and indeed, more powerful in many ways. For them, borders, currency and exchange are tools rather than preconditions for their very existence.

Agreed, but the most likely development in the short term is kinda gross: our basic means of subsistence will probably be guaranteed by political changes instituted by mega-powerful corporations and private equity companies whose revenue streams rely on us being able to spend money. In return, we'll all keep doing pointless make-work.

jones wrote:

I will say this though, it's good to see that absolute dickhead Bono mentioned by name yet again. This time his tax dodging scheme involves front companies in Malta and Guernsey and a shopping mall in fucking Latvia he really knows no shame does he the little snake prick

What a horrible, hypocritical scumbag he is.

We need a revolution but who will lead it?

jones wrote:

I will say this though, it's good to see that absolute dickhead Bono mentioned by name yet again. This time his tax dodging scheme involves front companies in Malta and Guernsey and a shopping mall in fucking Latvia he really knows no shame does he the little snake prick

Bono is an absolute twat- I hope they lock him up.

The tax stuff is pretty bad as well.  :saint:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/655097/HMRC-measuring-tax-gaps-2017.pdf

It's curious - you all seem to be in favour of boycotting the big bad companies of the world but how does that reduce the shortfall from smaller business, most of whom will never make the news since they're not as interesting? Moreover, use of tax havens and avoidance does not comprise of a significant gap according the HMRC's own research.

I'm not in favour of limiting consumer action to any particular size of company, since that just creates an incentive to restructure the problems.

I am in favour of making consumer actions much more efficient, for example by enabling individual citizens to rely on efficiently shared information when they go to the marketplace, whether online or on the street.

As a veteran of some fairly serious divestment campaigns, I'm well aware of the pitfalls introduced by the labour of trying to track which investors and funds are exposed to which negative outcomes of business. The infrastructure of an effective boycott needs to be as nimble as the supply chains and investment vehicles it's targeting.

jones wrote:

I will say this though, it's good to see that absolute dickhead Bono mentioned by name yet again. This time his tax dodging scheme involves front companies in Malta and Guernsey and a shopping mall in fucking Latvia he really knows no shame does he the little snake prick

He's such a fucking fraud. He's out making statements now about how shocked and sad he is to find out about it. Wait till he finds out he moved all U2s main earnings to the Netherlands to avoid Irish taxes, he'll be inconsolable.