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Comment by carbocation | Hacker News Reader

Were you 'decent enough' to pay more in taxes than you owed this year? Of course not. Why should anyone else feel compelled to do so?

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Phew, I'm not sure whether I even have to respond to that non sequitur.

Obviously I'm not a big corporation and obviously we're talking about tax loopholes here, not paying extra taxes on top of what you owe.

What is a loophole, if not something that reduces the amount of tax you owe?

Concretely, how do you propose Apple calculate how much tax they owe if "the amount the law requires" is not the correct amount?

I'm sure it was the intent of the framers of tax law that large corporations should funnel a third of their income to a different country as part of "the amount the law requires".

Precisely. I really don't get how anybody can try to force a red herring on this about "let's nitpick down to the nickel whether or not taxes are cool as they are" when we're talking about corporations who literally employ people to figure out ways of being taxed in a completely different country.

Apple is a company, not a mind reader. How are they to know where to funnel the money except where the law tells them?

I think you'll find the law does not say "US corporations should funnel their money to Ireland". Apple (and other corps) hire people to find edge conditions in law that they can exploit - they are not the doe-eyed innocents 'complying with the law' that you're painting them as.

They are dodging tax laws using technical loopholes, not complying with the spirit of the tax laws. Stop being an apologist.

How hard would it be to write a law that says "don't funnel your money to Ireland"?

If you think it's that simple, try writing to your representative with your solution to the problem.

But ultimately the issue is you painting them as innocents in this, 'they're not mind-readers', when the main article suggests that they were actually aggressive pioneers in finding ways to dodge the spirit of tax laws.

The corporate and personal tax rate in other countries such as Germany and Belgium are higher than the US.

I heard Germans and Belgians are "more decent" than Americans. ;)

Who's more "decent"?

The company that pays taxes, pays dividends to shareholders (pension/retirement funds, universities, charities,etc.), created 500,000 jobs in the US (which in turn pays income tax), spends billions in R&D, donates to charities, etc.

The big government with massive deficit that overspends on useless government programs, wars, etc..?

Yes, I like to think we are quite decent over here in Germany ;-)

But I don't think getting into a pissing match about who is or isn't decent and extending this so far that the conversation breaks ("And squirrels! Are they decent!?") does any good.

If there is a corporation that has most of its business in your country but plays tricks to be taxed in another, that's a problem, plain and simple. Whether or not they have other good qualities adds nothing to the discussion.

Also - I thought the trickle-down "but they create jobs!" argument was thoroughly debunked by now?

s/trix/perfectly legal tax laws

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_and_spirit_of_the_law

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