Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

What is the positive criteria?

Who gets aid, and how is the amount calculated? It's somewhat surprising that foreign company would be eligible at all.

Also, I'm skeptical of "common sense rules" being effectively implementable.

Company A1 owns intellectual property like trademarks and patents, registered in a tax haven. Company A2 manufactures & markets products in the consumer country. A2 could be paying licence fees to A1. A1 could be contracting A2 to do manufacturing and marketing. Either way, the idea is that A2 never makes profits. Any profits are made in A1, which also has no expenses.

This is/was Google & Apple's structure, with Ireland as the tax haven.

This is a simple example. Reality is usually more complex. It is generally hard/impossible to pick these knots apart. IDK of any country with corporate tax rules/enforcement that has picked it apart. Lots have tried. How did denmark do this.



If you think at all about why a company was registered in a tax haven to begin with, then it's clear that they shouldn't even be in a line to get bailouts from "foreign entities" (from the point of view of the company) at all.

If a company wants to be eligible for benefits inside a country, they have to follow all the laws.

No ifs, buts, ands.

If you feel that the company is "doing good work" why not ask them to be registered in the country to begin with? OR better - move headquarters into the country being discussed (or have that be a condition for receiving bailout funds).

All this said, I think it's up to the government of the Tax Havens themselves to support these companies. These tax havens derive significant benefit from being used in this way. It's time for the tax haven to step up and provide funding for support during this challenging time.


>>If a company wants to be eligible for benefits inside a country, they have to follow all the laws.

Minimizing tax liability is not necessarily doing anything outside the law.


That is only a very small part of why companies incorporate in tax havens.

Extradition policies, consumer protection laws, intellectual property status (ie whether you can use a tax haven incorporation to shield yourself from patent lawsuits or even to use it to hoard patents so you can use it as a base for launching law suits on others, forcing them to come to court in the tax haven jurisdiction for disputes)

There are so many things tax havens are used for. And that is why incorporating inside of the country where they are trying to get bailouts from is so important, otherwise the tax payer's money will be used against their own interests, with no way of enforcement.

Tax haven registered companies are the Nigerian Prince's of the corporate world. It is very possible they might be legit (and some very legit businesses are tax haven registered), but the very fact that they registered there on purpose is very telling in itself. Telling you they can swindle you with or without your consent.


I don't think that's quite what parent meant. There's a difference between

"Does not break any rules"

and

"Follows all the rules"

Where the gap is in whether the entity is subject to the rules. You are correct that one that isn't subject to the rules is right to not follow them.

But, where the outcome of those rules incurs some benefit, why should the non-subject incur it?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: