That’s the attitude of the European Union political elite—especially the ones in charge. In truth, the attitude isn’t unique to them; we have a similar problem, no less damaging to our economy and individual prosperity.
Documents cited by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Monday suggested that offshore law firm Appleby, which is based in multiple tax havens, helped the iPhone maker [Apple, Inc] move billions of dollars in revenues collected in Ireland to the Channel Islands to head off increased European Union scrutiny of its tax affairs in Dublin.
This isn’t tax avoidance, though, this is just a legitimate attempt by a business to keep what it’s earned.
On the contrary, “Just quit arguing, and give us your income,” says the EU; “We’ll take what we think is appropriate, and we’ll leave you with what we think you need.”
The money grab effort doesn’t get any more blatant than this recommendation by Gabriel Zucman, an Assistant Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley, beginning with his insistence on taxing more, not less:
The incentives to shift profits out of Germany are high, because the corporate tax rate is relatively high – around 30% when you take municipal taxes into account.
But this does not imply that Germany should cut its rate. Instead, it should tax multinational companies differently….
Because some companies are more equal than others. So, how differently?
[B]y apportioning…global profits proportionally to where they make their sales. So if Apple makes $100 billion in profits globally and 10% of its sales are made in Germany, 10% of its global profits would be taxable in Germany.
Gimme, gimme, gimme.
