[adrianN]

Billings Learned Hand once said:

> Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes.

If we want companies to pay more taxes (which I think we do want) we should change the laws. You can't blame anybody for only paying the legally required amount of taxes.

[Aker89]

I do agree that the only worthwhile effort is to change the laws. It's fundamentally wrong to have a system which favor those who can afford and have the resources to do such cynical tax planning. Just really fd up regardless of any political position. But hey, as long as all that corporate money is put into the political system, nothing will change.

[Kristine1975]

>You can't blame anybody for only paying the legally required amount of taxes.

Of course I can (and I do). Apple and various other companies go to great lengths to pay the least amount of taxes they can get away with.

[lowtolerance]

Why would anyone - individual or corporation - pay more taxes than they are legally obligated to pay?

Don't get me wrong: I believe that corporations should be obligated to pay much more in taxes than most currently do, but I'm going to assume that you don't knowingly pay more in taxes than you owe. If I'm wrong about that, then I'm interested in hearing your reasoning as to why you feel like the government is entitled to money to which they have explicitly stated that you aren't required to pay if you meet certain conditions.

[ScaryRacoon]

> Why would anyone - individual or corporation - pay more taxes than they are legally obligated to pay?

Because they can't afford the accountants and lawyers required to pull of the funneling of funds through various bodies and countries to get said reduction in tax burden?