But we can agree that it's not the nature of a corporation to pay more taxes than necessary? If people offer you crazy deals: agree. Governments should coordinate not to make crazy offers and perhaps even tit-for-tat those that do.
That's a game that may work in the short term but the long term consequences are pretty grave, especially since there seems to be a concentrating effect of such moves where more and more control is ceded to ever fewer companies.
It will be hard enough to maintain a tax base that can keep the lights on in a country as it is with all the change coming our way, creating playing field differences like these between SME's and behemots is going to erode that tax base very quickly.
We're the ants.
That depressing truth has a way of manifesting. I'm not quite sure what to feel about it. Our attempts here are futile. We're not going to get any legislation passed.
The fact is, companies can opt out of the social contract. They are big, and they're going to play by different rules. But I don't think that's strange -- that's just life.
It happens in China and Russia. Why should the US, Canada, or Europe be any different?
I can't tell you exactly how to solve it. Perhaps a close look at Japans "Tax Haven Counter Measure Law" could be a part of the solution: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dennis-howlett/japan-shows-how-...
But playing by different rules once you are big enough sure as hell ain't right.
Unfortunately, that's not really a tenable position for many users here.
We are not ants, the users of this board are often really important parts of the largest companies that exist today.
Corporations are social constructs, they are entirely made of people. Those people don't stop having a moral imperative to do right by others just by having an employee badge. Just as we require individuals to remain "decent human beings", regardless of what they can legally get away with, we need corporations to remain "decent social citizens". While it is not illegal to maximize profits through tax evasion, it is anti-social, and therefore we shouldn't encourage or applaud that behavior.
A preferable alternative would be for customers to consider a company's ethics in their purchasing decisions, and to encourage their peers to do the same. If it became socially unacceptable to have a new iPhone because of Apple's choice to pay such a trivial amount of tax (legal or otherwise, that's besides the point) you can be absolutely certain Apple would quickly stop funnelling money to tax havens, and they'd probably have a big marketing drive about how much they care about paying tax to fund better wages and welfare for soldiers, teachers and nurses too.
Social pressure is far more powerful than governments. It's just harder to 'control'.
It's a moral decision to dodge tax, not a requirement that their shareholders can sue over. That's just a (very thin) excuse.
Nobody wants them to do that. What motives you to lie for a corporation?
Think Different.