Australia Is Going To Lose To Switzerland
by Chris on 06/07/10 at 7:08 pm
If it hasn’t already
Chris Wilkins, living in Zug, Switzerland sheds some light on the enigma that is Swiss corporate tax and why the Australian Treasurer’s latest tax hike on the mining industry means the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Australians will ultimately lose out to a tough tax competitor. .....
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Garry Claridge
Feb 8th, 2011
Surely “lose” is a term used by your sense of moral values.
To most Australians they will win from this plan to better share the massive profits from non-renewal limited resources that belong to all Australians; now and in the future.
The way the proposed tax works is to target super-profits over and above the profits needed by the owners to satisfy their need to stay in the business. Many exemptions and reductions to the proposed tax will apply.
Chris Wilkins
Feb 9th, 2011
Your point is valid only if the profits are used for the good of the Australian people. But alas they won’t be as the money will be used to employ more professional chair warmers who work in the public service, and produce nothing.
This is always where the contradiction and hyprocrisy lies with socialist forms of government (not that I am saying America’s rapacious free market capitalism is the answer either).
And in any case, it is simply market competition of various tax regimes. If the govt taxes the hell out of companies they move. Like James Hardie. This is fact.
Plus I find it strange that a government should be applauded for being inefficient and asking companies to make up for their mismanagement, but a govt that runs things efficiently and delivers tons of services for its people gets bagged.
But I also appreciate that I may be bagged for saying this.
Danny
Feb 11th, 2011
A difference between mining companies and James Hardie is that the mineral resources are here. As a matter of practicality if the companies want those resources this is where they operate.
They might create companies here that sell resources to OS companies for a pittance, but I bet the government puts a market value test on those exports.
Additionally the companies have an infrastructure sunk cost that current operations have probably not paid off yet, so they are not just going to abandon them.
I’m not arguing anything here, just suggesting some facts that are applicable to the discussion.
The question about governments using their tax money well is a vastly open one. No government could exist if the taxed population refused to pay whenever they felt it was inefficient. Its really, as Chris is saying, a matter of competition but its quite complex. People who live in a country benefit (or not) from the taxes paid to the government, whereas overseas businesses with investments here are effected in different ways.