Trump Thread

[Husar]

If Trump abused the rule to run up losses for evading taxes, the issue isn't the rule but the lack of resources at the IRS to investigate fraud.

Is that even fraud? Plenty of companies have subsidiaries in tax havens that own all their patents and then they pay them for the patents until no taxable income is left outside the tax haven, where the tax on the income is minimal or nonexistent. AFAIK this is public knowledge and not fraud because paying a company abroad for using their patents isn't fraud, it's a legitimate business transaction.

Many tax codes simply don't consider international relations in that sense. Nike uses some loophole where the US law says their subsidiary in the Netherlands has to pay the taxes but the dutch law says the mother corp in the US needs to be taxed. Neither country demands taxes from them as long as all their profit happens in the Netherlands and their HQ is in the US.

A more appropriate question might be why no politicians seriously want to close such loopholes or why there is no international cooperation to make sure all countries get their taxes. Surely Furunculus would be against it, because in "classical liberalism", "libertarianism" or "neoliberalism" the idea that countries compete against one another to grant anyone lower taxes is a great idea and makes everyone more free. Except that Jose the plumber can't just leave Mexico to pay lower taxes in the US, but Antonio the (inherited) billionaire can. That's freedom and equality of opportunity.