[infinity0]

why are corporations such parasites? benefiting from the citizens in a country like France that are supported by its social services and infrastructure like roads, healthcare, a justice system that prevents the corporation's property from being stolen, but not contributing their fair share of the tax back and even arrogantly denying that they are benefiting from the infrastructure that they are taking advantage of for free?

[lurker213]

you do know that the citizens of said country pay tax for that infrastructure right? failing governments should stop using big companies as scapegoats. the bits and bytes used by FB and other big companies aren't degrading the fibre optics like a highway...

what I find funny is that if politicians wanted to close these tax loopholes, they could, I think they'd rather keep them open for them and their friends to use. The optics are better if they point the finger at something foreign and say 'oooh they are the bad ones', even though technically they are not breaking any laws.

I say this not as a fan of Facebook or Google. But you need to be realistic about government's always wanting more money.

[sparkie]

A corporation is a person, but it's a legal fiction. The corporation is simply a gathering of non fictitious people who come together to collaborate and earn revenue as a collective. Each of those people pays taxes from their salaries like anyone else - they pay their fair share.

So what is a tax levied on a corporation? It's simply an additional tax levied on the human people who make up the corporation. They're already paying their share, now they should be paying more?

If you're just a lowly employee with no control or insight into a corporation's finances, you might think it doesn't matter to you. Wrong. You're part of the corporation too. Money the government is taking out of the corporation is money that could potentially be added to your paycheck if the corporation prospers and you play your role.

[T2_t2]

Depends on the tax code. In Australia, corporate taxes are passed down as a deduction to real humans. So if I get a fully franked dividend (fully franked means the company paid the 30% company tax) of $70, I also get a tax credit for $30. If my marginal rate is > 30%, I pay the difference (e.g. 50% means I owe $20) but if it is lower I get a refund - the marginal rate is 19% up to $37K, so those people would get a refund of $11.

This seems to me a sensible law, as doesn't double dip, and foreign owners don't get the credit, so the government does get a smidge more revenue, while not F$%^ing over their citizens.

[stordoff]

> Money the government is taking out of the corporation is money that could potentially be added to your paycheck if the corporation prospers and you play your role.

And ultimately be taxed _anyway_, as the country needs a certain revenue. Taking a percentage out of profits that _might_ be passed down to employees, rather than from people where it definitely has, seems to make sense (especially if those profits are moving out of country so aren't providing any local benefit anyway).

[infinity0]

"A government is a legal entity, but it's also a legal fiction. [..]

So what is a tax that governments collect? It's simply an additional income that human people benefit from. [..]

If you're just a lowly citizen with no control or insight into a government's bureacracy [..]"

etc etc

Sorry, you can't have it both ways - pretend that corporations and governments are somehow different. The cognitive dissonance here is hilarious.

[sparkie]

Governments and corporations are very different. A corporation needs to generate profit. If they don't profit, their shareholders don't get paid! If they continually don't profit, they go out of business and lose the investments they put into the corporation.

Government has no obligation to profit. Quite the opposite. Government enterprises simply spend (other people's) money. If government worked on a profit motive like corporations, everybody would love governments and there would be no complaints. Imagine that instead of paying taxes, you got paid a bonus when your country prospers?

[infinity0]

You're grasping onto ideological straws. Both governments and corporations have to manage their finances, together with non-financial aspects of reality, in order to survive. Smart corporations don't only look at the bottom line on their account sheets.

[sparkie]

They both have to manage finances, but governments are spending other people's money. A corporation is people risking their own money on profitable ventures. How you can think they are in any way similar is beyond me. Governments have little accountability because they are so large, and they can't "go out of buisiness" because they don't have competition. They merely have a quadrennial theatrical show where two "directors" appear to compete for business, but where the shareholders (the taxpayers) ability to actually influence those "business" decisions are almost zero.

If there were a free market for most of the services government takes it upon themselves to provide (by their force on monopoly), the government would be out of business in nearly every area because there would be better competitors offering better services at lower costs.

[infinity0]

> governments are spending other people's money. A corporation is people risking their own money on profitable ventures

This is what you choose to believe, to maintain your internal consistency in your own ideology. From the point of view of the law, it is the government's money after they tax you, and the government believes that it is their money, in order to maintain their internal consistency of their ideology that justifies their legitimacy. They "risk" their money on various government / societal ventures and their "profit" is their continual acceptance by the citizens.

In both cases, forgetting about the ideology, what happens in reality is a transfer of wealth. I have to pay a government in order to live on land that they have physical control of, I have to pay a corporation in order to eat food that they have physical control of, or obtain other essential life resources from them.

Some governments and corporations are so large they can't "go out of business" because they don't have competition indeed. Some are smaller and they have to cater to individual customer / citizen demands more readily.