Plus one might complain that this is Ireland cheating in another way. Any revenue Ireland gains:
1) reduces another EU state's income by more than Ireland gains
(in other words, it's like Ireland stealing a car: a stolen car is worth fundamentally less than a non-stolen car, both to the thief and to the original owner if it is recovered. It is strictly a negative for the system as a whole. This is why prisons must work the way they do: to make sure the damage for the criminal is greater than the damage for the system as a whole. Otherwise nothing will stop crime increasing. As to how this applies to a country, I don't know, but obviously something must be done)
2) most of the money the companies "save" is immediately shipped to the US, and doesn't benefit Ireland's economy. This probably includes "real" Irish companies' profits.
3) invites retaliation by other governments, which Ireland stops by hiding behind the EU. While I hate Trump's trade balance bullshit, if it is meant to stop this, I can almost understand it (this "steals" taxes from the US, "destroying" 40% of the government income they steal). Trumps tarrifs were based on "trade deficit", and this reduces company taxes at the cost of a HUGE and artificial increase of the trade deficit of the US.
This also points to another BIG disadvantage of these actions by the Irish government: a LOT of foreign governments are trying harder and harder to stop this, and the foreign firms will disappear as quickly as they appeared. So, very suddenly and probably soon, ~40% of Ireland's corporate tax receipts and ~15% of Ireland's income tax receipts will disappear. At least. The way down will be both a lot more sudden and a lot faster than the way up.
Don't buy a house there.
So this practice of the Irish government did not just directly damage other EU countries (jobs, taxes, companies, ...) it, in a very real sense, even took money out of primary schools in South Dakota.
tharmas · 4h ago
Tax the rent seekers not producers.
Govts should be heavily taxing those who buy up assets yet produce nothing. Those who produce should be taxed lightly.
herval · 33m ago
How do you differentiate a corporation that “produces nothing” from one that does?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_minimum_corporate_tax_r...
Plus one might complain that this is Ireland cheating in another way. Any revenue Ireland gains:
1) reduces another EU state's income by more than Ireland gains
(in other words, it's like Ireland stealing a car: a stolen car is worth fundamentally less than a non-stolen car, both to the thief and to the original owner if it is recovered. It is strictly a negative for the system as a whole. This is why prisons must work the way they do: to make sure the damage for the criminal is greater than the damage for the system as a whole. Otherwise nothing will stop crime increasing. As to how this applies to a country, I don't know, but obviously something must be done)
2) most of the money the companies "save" is immediately shipped to the US, and doesn't benefit Ireland's economy. This probably includes "real" Irish companies' profits.
3) invites retaliation by other governments, which Ireland stops by hiding behind the EU. While I hate Trump's trade balance bullshit, if it is meant to stop this, I can almost understand it (this "steals" taxes from the US, "destroying" 40% of the government income they steal). Trumps tarrifs were based on "trade deficit", and this reduces company taxes at the cost of a HUGE and artificial increase of the trade deficit of the US.
This also points to another BIG disadvantage of these actions by the Irish government: a LOT of foreign governments are trying harder and harder to stop this, and the foreign firms will disappear as quickly as they appeared. So, very suddenly and probably soon, ~40% of Ireland's corporate tax receipts and ~15% of Ireland's income tax receipts will disappear. At least. The way down will be both a lot more sudden and a lot faster than the way up.
Don't buy a house there.
So this practice of the Irish government did not just directly damage other EU countries (jobs, taxes, companies, ...) it, in a very real sense, even took money out of primary schools in South Dakota.
Govts should be heavily taxing those who buy up assets yet produce nothing. Those who produce should be taxed lightly.