Would you argue that taking advantage of your 401k deduction is unfair to everyone else? How about the mortgage interest tax deduction? Deduction for child care?
The grey area of tax avoidance - misusing tax laws in ways that were not intended - is not illegal, but not fine. A variety of bizarre corporate structures and dodges are used and the only purpose they serve is to shuffle tax away from government. There's no reason Starbucks has its own coffee bean roasting company that sells its beans at huge price to the Starbucks coffee shops. The only reason it's been structured like that is to funnel tax away from governments where the shops are to the tax haven where the coffee roasting company is.
When a London business, selling products in London, to people in London, buys Google ads from the Google London office, paying for those ads from their London bank account to Google's London bank account in GBP the only reason someone in Ireland rubber stamps the paperwork is so Google can -quite legally- avoid tax.
These are scumbag moves and they create a lot of hostility.
Tax evasion is illegal.
The grey area of tax avoidance - misusing tax laws in ways that were not intended - is not illegal, but not fine. A variety of bizarre corporate structures and dodges are used and the only purpose they serve is to shuffle tax away from government. There's no reason Starbucks has its own coffee bean roasting company that sells its beans at huge price to the Starbucks coffee shops. The only reason it's been structured like that is to funnel tax away from governments where the shops are to the tax haven where the coffee roasting company is.
When a London business, selling products in London, to people in London, buys Google ads from the Google London office, paying for those ads from their London bank account to Google's London bank account in GBP the only reason someone in Ireland rubber stamps the paperwork is so Google can -quite legally- avoid tax.
These are scumbag moves and they create a lot of hostility.