Paradise Papers
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The world’s biggest businesses, heads of state and global figures in politics, entertainment and sport who have sheltered their wealth in secretive tax havens are being revealed this week in a major new investigation into Britain’s offshore empires.
The details come from a leak of 13.4m files that expose the global environments in which tax abuses can thrive – and the complex and seemingly artificial ways the wealthiest corporations can legally protect their wealth.
Revealing article in today's Times (of London):https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/channel-islands-trading-boom-hides-influence-of-eu-srx2635nlYou won't be able to read the whole article but the esssential is there and you can get the gist. Guernsey as a more important UK trading partner than China or Japan, what next? The 'trade' involved isn't really trade of course, just financial transactions dignified with the name of 'trade in financial services'. Apparently, quite a high percentage of world trade is that these days, exposing the utter irrationality of the capitalist system.
Paradise Papers: F1 champion Lewis Hamilton ‘dodged’ VAT on £16.5m private jet – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41886607
I understand that it is not the workers who are the "tax-payers" and it is in fact the capitalist class. So this tax evasion could be seen as none of our concern being one section of the capitalist class cheating another.However, if large corporations decline to pay their due to the State, this reduces governments income and affects their spending ability. It's more apparent in the developing world where trans-national mining and extractive industries can starve the host country of funds required for its infrastructure and public services.This also applies to developed countries, as well. An example of the influence of off-shoring is that Ireland's GDP spiked 26% (250 billion euros) in 2015 simply by a change in tax regulations. So, if the other capitalists refuse to make up the gap in state-revenue, and it seems as if there is a cartel of powerful businesses with systematic tax evasion practices that the State is either unwilling or unable to control, preferring to make up the short-fall in its tax income by cutting spending…by imposing austerity upon ourselves. So isn't this part of the class war ?..To expose tax dodgers (and remember we are talking of corporate giants, not window-cleaners) and demand that the government rather than impose benefits cuts or curtail infrastructure investment – make the capitalists pay to maintain the up-keep of their wage slaves.To explain that nation-states are unable to even keep its minimum promises because the capitalist class is global. (i already raised the question elsewhere whether the capitalist class requires the nation-state to continue…and i still wonder about that.)The risk to ourselves is we get dragged into the mire of Leftist demands, but surely we have to explain better that our analysis is more nuanced than simply saying workers don't pay tax and that tax is none of our concern. If the capitalist class is permitted to escape their tax obligations, do we simply leave the capitalist who now bears an increasing burden to have the political clout to end the evasion – when it is doubtful that can even with EU directives etc they can end tax havens and the mobility of capital. Just to put the cat amongst the pigeons
Or the thin edge of the slippery slope …Another aspect of tax dodging by multinational firms here. Their national-based competitors don't like it: because it puts them at a competitive disadvantage:https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2013/no-1301-january-2013/cooking-books-who-gains-%E2%80%98tax-justice%E2%80%99
‘John Lewis says it could be put out of business if foreign multinationals such as Amazon are allowed to continue paying tiny amounts of tax in Britain.’ John Lewis’s managing director, Andy Street, had told Sky News: ‘If you actually improve your business by investing, what that means is you have got less money to invest if you’re giving 27 per cent of your profits to the Exchequer than … if you’re domiciled in a tax haven and you’ve got much more. So they will out-invest and ultimately out-trade us …’The Socialist Standard article is nearly 4 years old and Amazon are still getting away with avoiding the same sort of rate others pay. Indeed, it seems that Street might be right, even if it hasn't got to the point where John Lewis goes bust but it losing profits, …but Amazon is certainly expanding its market and its range of it such as buying WholeFoods. Just how politically strong can national-competitors be to the trans-nationals?The government is supposed to be the executive committee to act in the interests of the collective capitalist class. But what if they are unable to do so, either because they are complicit or incompetent or incapable. (I'm sure various countries exhibit one or other of those flaws)The counter-balance to the higher burden of taxation on the workers, that of higher pay, is not appearing to manifest itself with stagnating wages. The time lag seems to be indefinite with only faint signs of it ending, due to government policies and weakness of the unions. I posted this comment on our blogAMY GOODMAN:…I want to talk about the language used now around the tax bill. We use language like “tax cuts,” “tax relief.” But is there another way to describe, to refer to the one-and-a-half trillion dollars in austerity? YANIS VAROUFAKIS: Class war. It’s an out-and-out class war waged against the poorest, the weakest, the disenfranchised—the very same people that Donald Trump appealed to in order to get elected. And added to it elsewhere WARREN BUFFET: There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.
Sounds to me more like two sections of the capitalist class disputing over how to share out the surplus value already extracted from the working class, with one side playing the "class war" card to try to get the working class to support it against the other side.
Indeed, i tried to bring that exact point out in my posts that capitalism is not a homogeneous class but have internal conflicts where we, the slave class, often suffer the consequences of the in-fighting. What i am trying to emphasise is that our case can be seen as too general. To pay for the tax cuts to the wealthy and to allow corporations to benefit from the export of their profits rather than pay tax, we workers are being made to pay the price. In the UK what is the Universal Credit purpose but to lessen the tax burden of the wealthy and make ourselves bear more upon our shoulders and that re-imbursement via the class struggle is not to be expected in the near future.In the US, Trump's tax reforms means middle-income earners will carry the cost of the cut in corporation taxBoth in the UK and the US social services have been reduced to permit the giveaway tax programmes. In both countries, wages are no compensating for the loss of benefits. Maybe it is time to cross the line and criticise the tax cuts for the rich for what they are…gifts to the rich paid for by the working class.
alanjjohnstone wrote:I understand that it is not the workers who are the "tax-payers" and it is in fact the capitalist class. So this tax evasion could be seen as none of our concern being one section of the capitalist class cheating another.However, if large corporations decline to pay their due to the State, this reduces governments income and affects their spending ability. It's more apparent in the developing world where trans-national mining and extractive industries can starve the host country of funds required for its infrastructure and public services.This also applies to developed countries, as well. An example of the influence of off-shoring is that Ireland's GDP spiked 26% (250 billion euros) in 2015 simply by a change in tax regulations. So, if the other capitalists refuse to make up the gap in state-revenue, and it seems as if there is a cartel of powerful businesses with systematic tax evasion practices that the State is either unwilling or unable to control, preferring to make up the short-fall in its tax income by cutting spending…by imposing austerity upon ourselves. So isn't this part of the class war ?..To expose tax dodgers (and remember we are talking of corporate giants, not window-cleaners) and demand that the government rather than impose benefits cuts or curtail infrastructure investment – make the capitalists pay to maintain the up-keep of their wage slaves.To explain that nation-states are unable to even keep its minimum promises because the capitalist class is global. (i already raised the question elsewhere whether the capitalist class requires the nation-state to continue…and i still wonder about that.)The risk to ourselves is we get dragged into the mire of Leftist demands, but surely we have to explain better that our analysis is more nuanced than simply saying workers don't pay tax and that tax is none of our concern. If the capitalist class is permitted to escape their tax obligations, do we simply leave the capitalist who now bears an increasing burden to have the political clout to end the evasion – when it is doubtful that can even with EU directives etc they can end tax havens and the mobility of capital. Just to put the cat amongst the pigeonsI think that you are putting the cat amongst the cats, or the cat amongst the dogsI wouldn't call it a class war, it is an inter-clas war between capitalists, it is not a war between the workers and the capitalists., or viceversa The capitalists are cheating each others, and they are cheating their own political apparatus known as the state. It does really show that the real taxpayer is the capitalist class, and the so called worker's taxpayer is only a capitalist myth.http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/depth-articles/state/taxation-mythThat false conception keeps the division amongst the workers, ( amongst the pigeons ) that is the reason why we hear workers saying that they are supporting the poor, or the so called middle class is sacrifying itself for the poor, and they are paying for welfare, or for medical services, or the false expression, that this society is divided between rich, middle class, and workers, this is a society divided between rich and poor, exploiters and exploited, capitalists and proletariats. The middle class is another fallacy created by the bourgoise society, but in 2008 they were collecting unemployement, welfare, and they have to give up their credit cards, and their BMW and Audi, and fancy residenceshttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/education/depth-articles/ownership/two-class-societyWe do know that the state is an organ financed with surplus value, if the capitalist class does not pay taxes to the state the service will be reduced, and it will affect certain sectors of the working class, but despite that , the struggle for taxation it is not matter of concern for the working class. It is well known that the capitalist will always try to increase their surplus value, and they are always willing to provide less benefits to the workers, that is not new. We are always living under austerityOnly one time in the history of capitalism, capitalist were forced to pay extreme high taxes by the captialist state , and it took place during the goverment of Roosevelt in the USA , when they passed a law forcing them to pay 94%, and payrol taxes withholding began ( and they have loopholes to pay less taxes ) , and the state became a stronger apparatus of oppression, and that large accumulation of capital was used to exploit the workers and to produce more wars, robbery, and to increase millitarism and colonialism. The new deal was state capitalism similar to the one implanted in RussiaThe slogan of making the rich pay, it is a long standing slogan of the left wingers, which is like indicating that the system of profits will exist forever, instead of saying that we must eliminate the system of profits, I have heard that slogan hundred of times during the times of crisis, instead of indicating that the crisis itself is a product of the capitalist mode of production, which takes place at the point of production, it is not taking place at the financial level
Your and ALB'S comments are much appreciated.But only two responses to my provocative postsIt does seem like this forum as a discussion list is becoming redundant when my heretical messages doesn't attract interest.Our case is not about tax reform to make it more equitable for the wealthy but to expose the misery and the hardships caused by the capitalist class when our slave owners choose to ration our bread and water to fill their pockets, something they have always done periodically and that the State is the organ that differing capitalists squabble over control for to advance their particular vested interests.
In the same way that this forum does not care about the international situation or what others workers are going thru in others nations. SOYMB cover more world phenomenon than this forum
After stamps, let's discuss the economic status of Guernsey. It's in the EU Customs Union so has to apply the common external tariff for imports from outside the EU. It is in the Single Market for manufactured goods (not that they manufacture much) and follows the rulings of the European Court of Justice on this. A precedent for another, larger island of the North West coast of Ireland when it too is reduced to the status of Guernsey?
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