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Comment by HumanDrivenDev | Hacker News Reader

The European Union can't coordinate a common policy on its external borders, defense or foreign relations. Aren't those the things best handled by a supranational union/confederation, while things like tax are best handled by individual member states?

The EU is bizzare to me in how much it legislates wrt to the internal affairs of its members, and how little influence it has on the things I mentioned above. Seems inside out.

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I'm pro EU. But there are only two options: either you merge the EU into a proper union (shared taxes, no tax competition within the bloc, shared money streams and bonds) or you disband it (or at least reduce some of its responsibilities).

The issue in part is that the euro, while great to use for consumers, wasn't thought out properly. The Euro Germany needs isn't the Euro Greece needs. And that has significant effects throughout local economies.

Tax competition can only be solved by throwing everything in one pot, and then dividing it again so everyone wins. But I can't see that happening with all the populism rising across the world.

It’s not realistic to expect the countries in the EU to be “more united” than the states in the US.

Correct. People try to make just about politics or the "naive masses" who follow the populists. It's not.

South and East europe are damned to an eternally declining economy if they don't leave the EU. There is no interest from Germany or Frace to redistribute the wealth to the periphery so they can develop too. They took away their ability to devalue their currency, so all they're left with is adjusting tax rates. Bulgaria, Ireland and the Netherlands are prime examples of somewhat succeeding in that. Greece and Spain aren't allowed to do it because of austerity. If the EU decides for a flat tax rate, everyone but the big 2 are doomed.

Unity is already hard for a country like the US, where everyone speaks the same language and could move to a different state overnight with no issues. For a union like the EU, pretending there are no borders is outright lying. What do they expect to happen? Have the entire EU move to Berlin when the last jobs in the South die out? Turn everyone in the South to a bartender for the Germans and everyone East to a cheap subcontractor for car parts? It won't work.

I believe in a unified europe. I love freedom of movement. But that won't happen through the current EU and Brussels administration. We need a new, better union, or no union at all. What we have now clearly doesn't work.

The EU is originally an economic union with aspirations for political unity. Taxes is actually really appropriate for it to be involved in if you consider why it was formed in the first place.

That will never fly though. The citizens have massive mistrust of ending up paying for the spending of other countries.

They already do that. The EU has a decently sized budget for developing underdeveloped regions and infrastructure in general.

Citizens don't know about corporate taxes, so that might fly :)

Especially, since it would probably be handled by local tax authorities. So this would only be agreeing on what the corporate tax rate should be.

Most citizens (me included) don't know what corporate taxes are... or what the rate is :)

It boy has the control and influence it’s member states grant to it. The EU can’t unilaterally impose rules on its members, hence Britain’s ability to negotiate exceptions to any EU policies or initiatives we didn’t want to be part of - Working Time Directive, Schengen Agreement, Euro Zone, etc. Tax policy is something EU member governments want to keep to themselves and don’t all agree on, and as long as that it so the EU will have a very limited say in it.

If Ireland was offering access to their own market of 5m they should be able to set whatever corporate tax they like. When they are offering access to a market of 550m they shouldn't be able to undercut everyone else.

So what's a fair rate of tax? Who decides?

The French Finance Minister? A EU Commissioner?

Taxation without representation in a purportedly democratic polity tends to not go down well.

Ideally an EU finance minister appointed by the European Parliament.

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