Capitalists with out taxes | Economy | EUROtoday

Economist Gabriel Zucman, professor on the University of Berkeley (United States), has revealed the mechanisms that permit sure technological giants and the ultra-rich to keep away from paying taxes. In a current article in The New York Times, the researcher who has most studied the harms of worldwide tax evasion explains the system of some companies to pay a lot much less taxes. The mechanism may be very easy: it consists of not paying dividends.

“If Amazon,” explains Zucman, “returned its profits to shareholders in the form of dividends, which are subject to income tax, [Jeff] Bezos [el presidente de la compañía] would face a hefty tax bill. But Amazon does not pay dividends to its shareholders. Nor Berkshire Hathaway or Tesla. Instead, companies keep their profits and reinvest them, enriching their shareholders even more.”

Carlos Cruzado, president of the union of Technicians of the Ministry of Finance (Gestha) is aware of these mechanisms effectively. He specifies that “non-distribution of dividends is a way for the owner of the company not to pay taxes.” The wealthy, he provides, “prefer to take out loans than collect dividends; For minority shareholders it may be attractive not to collect dividends because it helps the investment appreciate more.” The actuality is that American companies and, on the whole, corporations that don’t pay dividends make essential purchases by borrowing towards the collateral of their shares.

The accelerated enterprise focus and the brand new monetary strategies of capitalism present that the present tax system has grow to be anachronistic by selling rising inequality. The richest have a thousand devices to pay a lot much less taxes. More worrying is that states lack the required assets to deal with new wants.

In Europe, for instance, will probably be unattainable to satisfy local weather commitments because of the funding deficit. A examine by the 14CE Institute for Climate Economics, a non-profit group, signifies that to satisfy local weather targets, the European Union wants an funding of 813 billion euros yearly. In 2022, the actual funding was 407 billion euros, which represents an funding deficit in local weather issues of 406 billion euros per 12 months.

Zucman, a disciple of the French economist Thomas Piketty, in a current assembly with the G-20 finance ministers, offered a really sensible and easy formulation to deal with unsustainable fiscal inequality: require billionaires to pay 2% of their wealth to the anus. This would make it potential to gather roughly 250 billion {dollars} (230 billion euros) moreover per 12 months, barely greater than the anticipated assortment of the 15% minimal tax on the income of enormous companies.

We have no idea what the actual tax contribution of huge know-how corporations is within the EU. For Europe, which goals to make sure a differentiated mannequin, based mostly on social and environmental rights, it’s particularly pressing to confront the tax-free capitalism imposed by huge know-how.

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