Take this story from Forbes, for example. As they put it:
Why pay tax if you don't have to? Thomas Siebel used a corporate beast with the colorful name "horizontal double dummy" to avoid a big tax hit when he sold his Siebel Systems to Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ) this year. Worth $1.5 billion and No. 242 on our rich list, Siebel sidestepped a capital gains tax bill of at least $58 million by employing the perfectly legal device. His Siebel stock was valued at $488 million at the time of the $5.8 billion merger.
I wonder what good that $58 million might have done? And I bet it's hardly made any difference to his own perception of wellbeing.
Of course government's don't always spend their tax receipts well. But arrangements such as this don't do society any good at all. And even Forbes seems to realise this.
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I have to ask what is the solution. Should he just be arbitarily taxed and the money confiscated?
The solution is simple. We need a change of ethos. Paying tax is a ‘good thing’ not a ‘bad hing’. Governments provide goods (not univesally, I know, but overall undoubtedly) and it’s a social (if not moral) duty to pay for them. Tax law is there for a reason. It’s to be obeyed. Government should not provide opprtunity for it to be avoided.
Good enough for starters?
Several points here.
I am not looking at moral judgement but asking what is the solution? Taxation at whim?
This person was obeying the tax law as it stands. If not, I am sure the IRS would have taken him to the cleaners.
I do not understand tax`law is to be obeyed. If no tax is payable on a transaction then it is being obeyed. Thats called rule of law. Just taxing something because “it should be” is unlawful.
Governement waste a lot of money to promote their own (often politicians personal) interests. What social duty is there to pay them to waste money on my behalf?