Seeking help to understand the logic behind corporate income tax

[Tweety]

Why should big businesses like Apple pay income tax in a country where they sell their products but do not produce them there or have offices there?

 

This is a question I have tried to ask many times recently, but the person I am debating this about is heavily on the left, so the answers are in the lines of "so you want poor people to starve to death" or "Apple is taking advantage of the poor helpless citizens of X". The question and the answer always make me loose my "balance" in the conversation and/or the red thread of my thought, and usually ends with the goal post moved 10 million miles away, so I turn to the educated folk here to help me out!

 

In particular, I would appreciate if someone would explain these kind of taxes to me from a non-leftist point of view or refer to a source where I could read a more neutral explanation of this than the left/democrats are providing. Also, I do not see the logical sequence of thought behind these taxes, but I cannot completely point out the illogicality either. If someone can clarify either the logic or the lack of it, that would be highly appreciated!

 

As to my thoughts around this issue, I am thinking and arguing that big businesses are already paying quite a lot in taxes in VAT, in employee salaries who then pay taxes and social security, and do not consume that much of the infrastructure.

 

Thanks a ton for any help!

 

-Tweety-

 

 

 

 

 

[shirgall]

Does it help to know that the business tax and the income tax were both temporary measures to pay for the Civil War, and were promised to never both be active at the same time? Social Security and the Payroll Tax came later under FDR... The whole reason that a ton of benefits are offered by companies instead of raw cash is those things as well as a wage freeze during World War II. Etc. etc. etc.

 

The deeper you dig the more insane it gets.

[Alan C.]

The short answer (not intending to be flippant) is that people whose retort consists of "you want the poor to starve" are low-grade morons. People are not starving because of Apple. To the extent that people are starving, they are doing so despite Apple. I'd argue that people are better fed in the aggregate because of companies like Apple because of the labor saving devices they produce.

 

Corporations don't pay taxes because corporations don't exist. They're legal fictions. People pay taxes. Who pays corporate income taxes? The employees and customers.

 

There is no logic behind corporate income taxes. Politicians don't need logic or reason to expropriate people.

[Laforge]

Practical reason why Apple does it:
My guess is that if they don't, that local state simply goes after the retailer who "deals" products from an "illegal" company. These kinds of laws are generally pulled out of a hat by the ever expanding state. Maybe next year you'll need a clearly visible license plate on your person if you're outside. They'll think of a bs-story for the 'why', your average leftist will help you out there.

Philosophical reason why things are the way they are:
Check 'the story of your enslavement' plus bad parenting.
 

[NumberSix]

My guess is statist logic goes something like this: consumers from the country are buying the products; since the company is making a profit off the citizens, therefore the company should pay taxes in that country.  In theory an import company buys product in country of origin and pays a tariff. Importer would then pay taxes on the profit from sales in the destination country.

[Tweety]

All your answers are helpful beyond what I anticipated!

 

I had no clue these taxes were supposed to be only temporary. A very good piece of information to have. I suppose most of government taxes are initially intended for "salvaging something" in a short term or for other purposes, at least on the surface, but end up sticking like a leech and spreading like a cancer. And eventually, as Alan points out, it is the customers and the employees that end up paying for it all.

 

NumberSix, that sounds like a plausible statist logic, and also in the lines of what I was thinking the state might use as reasoning/fake logic.

 

Going to work on keeping my thoughts together in the conversations with these pieces of knowledge!