[adventured]

It's based on this fraudulent premise that makes its rounds as an empty soundbyte (when back in reality, the US has the second highest effective corporate income tax rate in the OECD). The setup is that Delaware is being used as an information cloak (while there's zero evidence the US is actually being used as a real tax-evasion haven of any sort).

This story explains the foundation of the soundbyte:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/05/how-t...

[tribaal]

Oh, it's a fraudulent premise and an empty soundbyte?

It seems like you're quoting an article in the washington post, and similar articles from similarly reputable sources point it out (see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/business/how-delaware-thri... for example).

Just saying, it's a pretty convincing soundbyte that happens to cite its (verifiable) claims.

[adventured]

Yeah, it's an empty claim, which is why neither the NY Times nor the Washington Post provides any actual evidence that there's a tax haven occurring onshore in the US. The sole premise they float, is about information cloaking, and then they call it a tax haven arrangement without backing that up.

Where's the hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars in tax haven'd capital to support their claims? They don't provide so much as a shred of evidence such a thing exists. It doesn't exist, because the US isn't a tax haven. The IRS is extraordinarily aggressive about such things and has very far reaching powers to hammer entities that attempt to evade taxes in any manner inside the US.

The articles use hilariously absurd things like that states are competing over lowering the cost of establishing LLCs, as evidence. Oh golly gee, that verifies the US as the world's largest tax haven no doubt.

Like this amusing quote: "In some places [in the U.S.], it’s easier to incorporate a company than it is to get a library card"

Oh man, the Washington Post really nailed it there, world's largest tax haven status confirmed.

Just look at the language they use throughout, it's vapid, unsupported, vague, etc. They constantly hint, use suggestive language, proclaim, and never deliver anything real. Such as:

"Too often, however, shell companies are used as a vehicle for criminal activity"

Oh, too often, well that's really spot on. Then they proceed to not actually support the "too often" part in any manner. The NY Times and Washington Post articles are filled with that crap.

[tribaal]

Well, from my point of view, I can either:

- Choose to think you are right, dear random HN commenter

- Choose to think the corpus of papers and articles saying the opposite of what you claim is in fact right (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_as_a_tax_haven#R... - I'm not quoting wikipedia, this is a link to sources)

Guess what? :)

EDIT: Please, by all means, do produce articles from reputable sources that support your claim that the US is not an enormous corporate tax heaven! I would be very interested to educate myself on the subject with differing opinions from experts such as investigative journalists or economists, bankers, or tax lawyers.

I just don't believe random HN commenters on face value :)

TL;DR: [citation needed]

[adventured]

I appreciate that my pointing out the extremely mediocre reporting by the NY Times and Washington Post on this matter has swayed you to such a degree.