discussion about the specific tax rulings in Ireland for Apple
i got an email from wemove.eu (an organisation that fights for transparency at the top of the EU) saying that ‘apple has been caught illegally dodging billions in tax’ – which is not true of course
apple just accepted an offer – back in the late 90-ties – from ireland to pay less taxes in exchange of hundreds of millions of investment dollars and the creation of thousands of jobs : apple IS in effect paying loads of taxes and social security on the wages of the irish workers
our unbalanced tax system
that makes me think about how unfair – or better ‘unbalanced’ – our tax system is : countries tax work (55% or more), tax benefit in companies (34%), tax added value (VAT 21%), tax fuel (about 40%), tax cars, tax houses, etc… a small calculation learns that a belgian worker is taxed easily 70% or more directly and indirectly – outrageous you say ?
for a company it is ‘easy’ to pay less taxes : they get deductions for investments can depreciate material and bring down the benefits with fiscal structures – there are around 1200 fields (twelve hundred) to fill out in the yearly tax declaration to cope with all exceptions
but there is indeed a way to make it much easier – why not tax the gross of everything that is produced (goods, services, work) in a country at a rate of 20% – no exception and no depreciations and no subventions anymore
and if i say gross i really mean gross : you rent a room at airbnb ? 20% tax – you drive an uber car ? 20% – you clean a house ? 20% – you sell drinks on a fancy fair ? 20% – rent your house ? 20% – have a salary ? 20% – have benefit in the company ? 20%
20% is reasonable and is enough to make the people proud of paying it to get all those marvelous services like education health care mobility from the state
and it is absolutely possible : belgium is producing every year ‘officialy’ for around 401.000.000.000€ (gross domestic production) and has around 90.000.000.000€ state expenses (45% of that are pensions !!)
if belgium would tax 401 billion at a rate of 20% – they would receive 80 billion – that would be more than enough to cover all expenses taking into account the skipping of exceptions and depreciations and subventions and a heavy control structure
it would be so transparent and so easy to do : every month even every week or after every activity every company every worker every organisation would wire 20% of his gross revenue to the state and with the rest he does or buys what he does or buys without retention
it would boost economy make culture bloom eradicate black work and create a LOT a LOT of jobs
can it be easier ? i would love to live in a world like that