Tax havens
vendredi 26 juin 2015 à 14:00The US operates as a tax haven, along with Jersey, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. This article explains how tax havens work and how they give multinational companies an advantage over local competition.
I disagree with the rhetorical trick that occupies the first part of the article: buying from a company that uses tax havens is not morally equivalent to using a tax haven yourself.
Nonetheless, I have very little dealings with the multinational tax-haven-using companies mentioned as examples. Some I reject for other reasons (Apple, Amazon, Skype, most Google services, Microsoft, Facebook, big banks), while others sell things I don't need.
UK plans to block use of tax havens were watered down so as not to cover Luxembourg, Jersey or Switzerland.
Even worse, the plan creates a new tax-dodging scheme.
The UK government demands that EU countries compete to tax businesses less.