The poster in the window

FTBFun

shortchanged wrote: »

And so they should. It still doesn't stop them making massive profits though.

How dare a private company make massive profits. The cheek of them.

Mallotum_X

FTBFun wrote: »

How dare a private company make massive profits. The cheek of them.

Nothing wrong with that, except when profits are made they should be fairly taxed.

I did wonder how long it would be before the fact they employee lots of people would be brought up. Although I guess the counter point would be to wonder how many of their employees require tax credits to turn their wage into a living wage.

Suprised really that people seem quite happy to see firms such as Tesco avoiding paying their fair corporation tax on the profits generated in this country.

bugslet

As I've said before, I'm not the sharpest on all this economics stuff, hence I rarely post on here. Most of the time reading just leaves me more confused.:o

Yes there should be more to stop evasion - that is the illegal bit isn't it? Whereas tax avoidance is making the most of the current laws that have loopholes and are therefore not illegal? Though morally up for debate.

I'm not sure raising taxes is always productive for big companies though. I remember reading that twitter had expanded its offices in Ireland because of the low corporate tax and transfer pricing ( see penultimate para)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/26/twitter-international-hq-dublin

I know I'm not comparing like for like when it comes to Tesco which have to have a physical presence. I really don't know if it is better to tax more those companies that are here and need to be here, or if it's better to have a lower tax band and attract those companies who can operate from pretty much anywhere and get some tax from them and employment opportunities?

Told you I generally confuse myself......

ILW

Mallotum_X wrote: »

Nothing wrong with that, except when profits are made they should be fairly taxed.

I did wonder how long it would be before the fact they employee lots of people would be brought up. Although I guess the counter point would be to wonder how many of their employees require tax credits to turn their wage into a living wage.

Suprised really that people seem quite happy to see firms such as Tesco avoiding paying their fair corporation tax on the profits generated in this country.

That is a problem caused by government policy. Sort of chicken and egg. If they could not get anyone to work for them for the wages they pay, they would have to increase the wages. The whole thing is skewed by a system where virtually everyone gets some sort of top up from the state.

bugslet

ILW wrote: »

That is a problem caused by government policy. Sort of chicken and egg. If they could not get anyone to work for them for the wages they pay, they would have to increase the wages. The whole thing is skewed by a system where virtually everyone gets some sort of top up from the state.

Now that does annoy me - in effect everyone ends up subsidising Tesco etc by topping up workers wages with tax credits.

ILW

bugslet wrote: »

As I've said before, I'm not the sharpest on all this economics stuff, hence I rarely post on here. Most of the time reading just leaves me more confused.:o

Yes there should be more to stop evasion - that is the illegal bit isn't it? Whereas tax avoidance is making the most of the current laws that have loopholes and are therefore not illegal? Though morally up for debate.

I'm not sure raising taxes is always productive for big companies though. I remember reading that twitter had expanded its offices in Ireland because of the low corporate tax and transfer pricing ( see penultimate para)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/26/twitter-international-hq-dublin

I know I'm not comparing like for like when it comes to Tesco which have to have a physical presence. I really don't know if it is better to tax more those companies that are here and need to be here, or if it's better to have a lower tax band and attract those companies who can operate from pretty much anywhere and get some tax from them and employment opportunities?

Told you I generally confuse myself......

Well put.

The problem with the likes of UKUncut is they have this rather simplistic view of "if we get more tax from the rich, we can go on spending like before". It aint that simple.

StevieJ

Mallotum_X wrote: »

Nothing wrong with that, except when profits are made they should be fairly taxed.

I did wonder how long it would be before the fact they employee lots of people would be brought up. Although I guess the counter point would be to wonder how many of their employees require tax credits to turn their wage into a living wage.

Suprised really that people seem quite happy to see firms such as Tesco avoiding paying their fair corporation tax on the profits generated in this country.

Not to mention the nember of jobs offshored to India and Eastern Europe.

shortchanged_2

bugslet wrote: »

Now that does annoy me - in effect everyone ends up subsidising Tesco etc by topping up workers wages with tax credits.

I've been saying this for ages to all these people who berate the public sector workers who are paid from tax payers money.

I wonder how many private sector workers get large payouts from tax payers money in the form of top ups and yet these big companies generate huge profits. Hardly a free market ILW.

And people complain about the mimimum wage. The hit on the public finances would be even greater if there wasn't one. Something if my mind serves me right, the tories were dead against.

MacMickster

shortchanged wrote: »

I've been saying this for ages to all these people who berate the public sector workers who are paid from tax payers money.

I wonder how many private sector workers get large payouts from tax payers money in the form of top ups and yet these big companies generate huge profits. Hardly a free market ILW.

And people complain about the mimimum wage. The hit on the public finances would be even greater if there wasn't one. Something if my mind serves me right, the tories were dead against.

This has always been one of my biggest bugbears.

Any business that makes a profit for its owners/shareholders, but fails to pay its employees a living wage is not truly a profitable business. For the state to top up the wages of those employees through tax credits etc merely stops other competing businesses from offering better wages, or they will be undercut by the subsidised business. Sadly, many businesses ignore their social responsibilities and prefer to take on only part-time staff paid at minimum wage to avoid (what they see as) the onerous requirement to administer PAYE.

This was, of course, even worse before the minimum wage, when employers would regularly pay as little as £2 per hour, knowing that the amount would not matter to the employees as the taxpayer would top up these slave wages through benefits.

Losing_the_way

The tax system could be vastly more efficient. Why do we still tax the low paid and then return the money to them as tax credits. All that does is increase the cost of running the state. It is obvious that we couldn't afford the size of the state in the boom years and so we have to shrink it now to match tax revenues.

A good book on off-shore tax havens is Treasure Island by Nicholas Shaxon. It goes into detail how they have affected commercial activity throughout the globe. From reading that book it obvious that our domestic companies will always struggle against the multinationals. If we did away with the the tax havens then tax levels would reduce around the world. Some of that would filter down to consumers which would create greater economic activity.