EU seeks to punish low tax countries

[charrison]

linkage

....
According to new data just released by the World Bank, the six economies that have the highest per capita income (on a purchasing power parity basis) are: Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the United States, Bermuda, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands. These six entities are all free-market democracies. They are all characterized by providing a high degree of economic freedom and personal liberty for their people. They all provide strong protections for private property and have low levels of corruption, honest and independent judicial systems, relatively small black markets, and very low levels of poverty.
In a rational world, you would expect other countries to applaud and try to emulate the success of the "top six." Unfortunately, we live in a world of envy, corruption, and intellectual dishonesty. As a result, the "top six" are all under attack for engaging in the newly invented and oxymoronic "sin" of "unfair tax competition." Their crime, in the eyes of the international bureaucratic class, is that even though they have provided great prosperity and opportunity for their citizens, they have done so without the excessive taxation of the French and some of the other "old European" nations.
As most people would expect, many of the citizens of "old Europe" have been moving their savings out of their home countries and investing in the "top six," where investments are better protected and taxed less rapaciously. Citizens of France and other countries of "old Europe" are merely acting rationally to protect their property from tax confiscation.
This has caused the European political establishment to engage in an irrational and destructive jealous rage by demanding that the "top six" raise their tax rates, share taxpayer information with corrupt governments, and stop providing safe harbor to their runaway tax slaves.

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[0roo0roo]

hope they succeed.

 

[glenn1]

Don't forget Ireland, who is eating the rest of the EU's lunch economically because they lowered taxes, immigration restrictions, and regulations.

 

[MovingTarget]

Good read. I'm not really suprised that some people over in Europe and here think in this way. If we were for some reason to raise taxes to a comparable level to France, etc, they would surely benefit much more than we would because of the way our particular economy currently works. Also, the public outcry at such a move would be pretty large. In my opinion, there does exist an ideal level of taxation in any economy that will maximize growth; to exceed this level can be not only detrimental, but foolish.
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I'm no master economist by any long shot, but thats my $0.02

 

[B00ne]

What a BS article of some guy with no idea what he is talking about....

Whatever he is talking about, but what he meant is probably the issue of tax havens. Such countries (Cayman Islands) have done nothing economically than just being a tax haven, they produce nothing they do nothing. Now when big companies in Germany for instance produce all their stuff in Germany, get all the benefits of our system but then not even have the dignity to put something back into the system, because they just move the holding as a post box company into such a country. Then that is company greed. It is possible, because many countries have different laws.(Best would probably be to pay taxes there, where the revenue is created)

Many rich ppl here do not pay taxes at all, they just "mock" move to a place where they pay really low taxes still rake in all the benefits at home but dont pay taxes. (in germany u pay taxes where u live, as US American for instance u always have to pay taxes to the states no matter where u are - whic is clearly better)

Also germans do not have (much)national pride, so naturally such rich ppl just do what is good for their profit, profitting of the system in Germany, (making everyone else poorer - the rich seldom pay taxes it is all done by normal and lower incomes) and profitiing of such countries that are so small, that their little economy just needs to attract enough "tax asylum seekers" to turn it into a rich small little country without needing to work...

 

[freegeeks]

Belgium, a member of the "old Europe" club, has proclaimed its unilateral right to try any person who has allegedly committed war crimes anywhere in the world. As a result, the Belgian courts have pursued suits against former President George H. W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Gen. Tommy Franks.

of course they don't mention that before the same court there are also suits against first class a'holes like Arafat, Khadaffi, Sharon, Hoessein, Pinochet, ....

Of course they don't mention that the court has already ruled that it cannot charge Tommy Franks etc...

of course they don't mention that before the same court the Rwanda Genocide trial took place and several mass murders were convicted for their role in the massacre

It's not because you can file a suit that there is going to be a trial.

and Charrison,

I don't see you pointing to the Bush administration who is responsible for the detention of the "unlawfull combatants" on Cuba. These guys have no legal rights at all in the "greatest democracy in the world" with the best "judicial system".

And about the "new europe". Italy is considered to be a member of the "new europe". Prime minister Berlusconi is as corrupt as a politician can be and his coalitian partner, the Lega Nord is a fascist, racist party. Berlusconi pushed a law through the Italian parliament to prevent that the Italian Justice Dept. went after him for widespread corruption and alleged ties with the maffia. The leader of the Lega Nord said a couple weeks ago that the Italian Navy should open fire on illegal refugees who are trying to reach the Italian coast.

Yep, Rummy and Dubya sure like the "new europe". I'm glad I live in the "old europe".

This article is a big piece of s***t

 

[zephyrprime]

citizens of "old Europe" have been moving their savings out of their home countries and investing in the "top six," where investments are better protected and taxed less rapaciously

I don't get it. Even if a European moved some investments into one of the low tax nations, wouldn't their investments still be taxed based their nation of residence? Wouldn't they have to relocate to get the tax benefits?