In 2009 I wrote a theory of offshore secrecy. The ultimate aim of the offshore tax haven user was, I suggested, to be nowhere. This meant being subject to no regulation in what I called the secrecy space. The diagram that represented the transition from full regulation 'here' to an absence of regulation 'nowhere' looked like this:
It would seem as if Apple achieved the goal of being nowhere.
No wonder they are upset at having to now pay the price of being somewhere.
In a nutshell that explains everything that the last week has been about.
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I agree at all levels local regional national and international. what a very low tax bill estimate not based on local prices. could pay for citizens income for the people.
I like your chart!
For me, it needs unpacking a bit.
I guess Jurisdiction A would represent City banks and the like processing payments for BVA companies etc. Also I believe a lot of business is done based on English law albeit outside the UK.
Juridiction B, I’m not sure what is meant there.
The whole analysis looks worth of a pamphlet / pdf type thing – I would read it anyway.
Follow the link and you will find the PDF
Apple Chief Executive, Tim Cook’s claim last week that ‘No one did anything wrong here’ as a reason why it wasn’t immoral and wrong for Apple to pay a low as 0.05% tax on its £billions in profits is very similar to Gary Glitter’s claim that he wasnt breaking any laws when he only had sex with 13 years old girls in countries where the age of consent is 13. Shopping around the world for laws you want to obey to avoid those that everyone else has to abide by isn’t moral and this (admittedly unpleasent) comparison might be a good meme to promote to illustrate what is acctually happening. The real question is why isn’t our government doing anything about this sort behaviour obviously – they changed the law to cope with Gary Giltter and his cronies and they need to do the same for the tax dodgers. What I fail to understand is that it isn’t even a left-right issue. Our high streets are filling up with firms that avoid tax and push out the local small businesses who have to pay real tax rates and can’t compete. This is a fundamental free market issue. All companies (and individuals) need to pay the same rates of tax on their profits whatever their size. Our government needs to wake up and address this issue not weakly mutter about being ‘business friendly’ and suggest that we lower our taxes so these multinationals will grace us by choosing to obey our laws instead and pay their taxes here thereby depriving other countries of the tax due them.