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  • 125 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: July 22nd, 2024
  • Don_alForno@feddit.orgtoEurope@feddit.org•Merz calls for EU to suspend global minimum tax after US exitEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    How do you think the USA tax their citizens living abroad (they tax by passport, not by residence)? Send in the military and take it by force? Probably not, but if you want to return I guess you should better have paid your taxes each year.

    Ban the company from selling products in Germany unless they pay some arbitrary amount like North Korea

    It may come as a surprise to you, but we ban a lot of products from entering the EU for a large variety of reasons. This wouldn’t be the worst reason.

    How do you think we are making Apple comply with the EU mandated USB-C charging port? We don’t allow iPhones without it into the shared market, that’s how.

    You imply something that is frankly crazy. Not even Zimbabwe tried anything like that, and they stole huge swathes of land and ended up with a starving population.

    See above. Also, Zimbabwe is one small and rather unimportant country. We are talking about an international treaty with more than 140 member countries. A company can divest from Zimbabwe. Let’s see them do it with these 140 countries.

    Frankly, you’re being ridiculous.

  • Don_alForno@feddit.orgtoEurope@feddit.org•Merz calls for EU to suspend global minimum tax after US exitEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    Microsoft can sell a German an Office license, and they are liable for zero tax on any profit if the sale is from the U.S. entity.

    That is a political decision and can be changed at will.

    The user above is correct: if the U.S. won’t impose a tax floor, companie can and will relocate their (at least for tax purposes), if their tax floor (including subsidies and exemptions) is lower.

    If it were that simple, Trump would not have had to threaten the G7 for an exception for his companies, he could just have withdrawn from the treaty. This is about the other countries in the treaty not taxing american companies. Because that is the only way you can combat tax havens: by collecting the tax that wasn’t paid there yourself, regardless of company presence. “Wanna do business here? Pay your Tages.” Companies can evade that if it’s just one or two countries doing it, but not if it’s a broad alliance.

  • Don_alForno@feddit.orgtoEurope@feddit.org•Merz calls for EU to suspend global minimum tax after US exitEnglish
    9·
    3 days ago

    If we tax someone at 15%, while the US doesn’t they will take their business there (if possible).

    Not necessarily. If that were universally true, all multinational companies would have their seat in the country with the cheapest taxes, which they clearly do not. There are other factors. But yes, it’s one of them.

    Anyway, what he should do is fight against the exemption for US companies, especially after Trump now wants to hit the EU with his 30% tariffs anyway, so it doesn’t even get us anything.

    Alas, he was, until very recently, a Black Rock employee, which is, you may or may not know it, a US company. He is also a far right neoliberal known for favoring corporations and the rich. It’s very obvious that the US exemption plays right into his cards and dismantling the whole minimum tax, which is easily the single greatest multinational achievement since World War 2, was always on his agenda.

    To really change anything in the world you cannot be game-theoretically naive.

    The global minimum tax isn’t that. It literally wouldn’t matter if the USA were in or out, because the broad global agreement means, if the Americans don’t collect the 15%, some other country can and will. Trump just threatened the G7 into granting an exception, which could have been avoided if they had spines and took a stand.