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113 points jimhi | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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SoftTalker ◴[] No.44474976[source]
What on earth is wrong with not paying taxes legally? What taxes does anyone pay other than those that they must pay?

If the government wants a tax to be paid they need to make it simple and unconditional. If there are loopholes or ways to legally avoid it, they will be discovered and people will take advantage of them.

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webdevver ◴[] No.44475075[source]
i think the latest term is 'tax optimisation'...

you could make an argument that in order to optimise your taxes, you have to be quite wealthy to begin with (hiring a tax guy, etc.) - otherwise you don't have any time left in the day to run your business.

so in practice, the little guy winds up just paying the 'sticker price' so to speak, while the big guy has pros who can make their big profits even bigger.

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f4c39012 ◴[] No.44475171[source]
If everyone had access to the same kind of tax advice that minimised taxes for the rich, I bet a bunch of loopholes would get closed pretty quickly. Some publicly available templates and simple to follow guides would encourage governments to act when they see a general shortfall in revenue. When new loopholes emerge, rinse & repeat. Maybe everyone would pay their fair share then
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smallmancontrov ◴[] No.44475222[source]
No, because most loopholes cost $$ to set up so they only break even above a certain income that few people have. You must be this rich to play.
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anthonypz ◴[] No.44475263[source]
I’m curious to know: what are some of the things that need to be set up? Specific bank accounts to route money around?
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1. AlotOfReading ◴[] No.44475440[source]
An easy example: buy a house in Monaco, put €500k in a bank, and declare it your legal residence for tax purposes to avoid most taxes.
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2. v5v3 ◴[] No.44475996[source]
Or get some one else to move...

The UK billionaire Phil Green lived in UK, his wife moved to Monaco and everything was in her name. So he could run the companies in person and she would recieve the hundreds of millions in dividends.