
Why Tax Competition Is a Good Thing - andrenth
https://mises.org/blog/eu-vs-apple-vs-ireland-why-tax-competition-good-thing
======
mhw
"Obviously, without considering state organizations for what they are — i.e.,
parasitic organizations"

Well, that's one perspective. People will disagree on this point, and it's
useful to know the basic position on which the rest of the article is based.

~~~
paulgb
Yes, the thesis of this seems to be "tax is bad, tax competition will lead to
a race to the bottom, so tax competition is good". Which is fine, but I was
hoping for an argument that didn't rely on those assumptions.

------
herge
One other benefit that Ireland offers than just a low tax rate is more
'pliable' business laws, in that say you are an American company trying to set
up a subsidiary in the Euro zone. You can read up in length on either French,
Germany or Italian corporate law to best figure out how to do business there,
or 'simply' set up in Ireland where laws on purpose have been made to emulate
american corporate structures, positions, titles, etc, and yet benefit from
free trade and pan-european laws and standards provided by the EU.

------
steenreem
This article is highly subjective: "Since the 2009 crisis, Ireland has
systematically been designated as the official scapegoat of every politician,
witch-hunter, and other demagogue trying to avoid any discussion about the
real problem: the explosion of unproductive and anti-competitive government
expenditures."

------
dogwalksme
This is an opinion piece, and mostly rubbish at that. Why is this here?

------
jacknews
It seems mises are surprised by the fact the European UNION aims to harmonise
tax laws. That is one of the main points of the organisation.

Of course that prevents individual countries from "racing to the bottom" with
their own tax, environmental, and other laws, which seems to be mises real
problem with the EU.

------
tmaly
I made this same point the other day and got down voted for suggesting that
Ireland may leave the EU over this.

~~~
Oletros
Perhaps you got down voted because even if it has been explained a lot of
times, the EC has no problem with Ireland competing with low tax rates.

The case is not about low tax rates, the case is about an state (previously
was Belgium and 35 EU companies) that give private and ad-hoc deals to some
companies distorting the competition between companies

And perhaps you got downvoted because saying that Ireland should leave the EU
means that you have a poor knowledge of EU countries economies.

~~~
vixen99
Alleged private and ad-hoc deals. Let's wait for the detailed facts to emerge.

~~~
Oletros
Alleged? It has been a ruling already

------
british_india
The world will never lose its supply of capitalists looking to externalize
their costs.

------
tnzn
Let's word it in a truer way : corporations that milk the people using their
workforce to make billiond

------
Oletros
Taking into account that the EC ruling is not about tax competition, the Mises
article is moot

------
lumberjack
Lots of completely irrelevant arguments that don't actually address the case
in question which is very simply that EU can get $X billion out of Apple in
tax and therefore they will because they can, period.

There is nothing for the EU to gain from leaving those billions in Apple's
pockets. Apple is not employing that many people nor is it contributing to the
EU economy in any significant ways and if they pull out altogether it will
only allow EU competitors to gain some market share. Moreover, unlike
Facebook, Google and Microsoft, Apple does not provide any infrastructure
critical services to any EU entities.

~~~
vixen99
Purely as a matter of fact: given Apple's prices, why don't people buy those
EU competitors' products then? Apple products contribute to Europeans' lives
to the extent precisely measured by how much they're prepared to pay for them.
Quite a lot it seems. You could say that the $14 billion or so represent votes
for Apple: i.e., it's derived from money freely handed to Apple for something
considered of value by the purchasers who have already paid 20% in VAT taxes.

Worth pointing out that no detailed evidence or methodology on the Apple case
has yet been made public by the EU. The courts will decide.

