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原始链接: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43394643

Hacker News上的一篇帖子讨论了一篇文章,该文章声称美国制药公司没有缴纳美国税款。最初的评论者表达了不满, prompting一位用户质疑原因,并指出许多公司都报告亏损。这引发了与“好莱坞会计”的比较,其中盈利电影被声称为亏损。另一位用户对在出现这种明显的避税行为的同时,预算削减对全球卫生计划的影响表示遗憾。一位评论者认为,关注税收收入是忽略了重点,因为美国政府优先考虑经济速度而非征税。他们认为对“税收正义”的渴望是错误的,并指出最高法院将避税与跨州寻求更低汽油价格的做法看作类似行为。他们认为其他国家正在受益于这些公司缴纳的税款。总的来说,讨论涉及税收漏洞、政府优先事项以及在税收中定义“公平份额”的难度。

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  • 原文
    Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
    American Pharmaceutical Companies Aren't Paying Tax in the U.S. (cfr.org)
    24 points by luu 1 hour ago | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments










    I hope this isn't true. I'm very upset reading this.


    Why? Many are reporting losses. Do you expect them to pay taxes on something other than profit?


    > reporting losses

    "According to Lucasfilm, Return of the Jedi (1983) "has never gone into profit", despite having earned $475 million at the box office against a budget of $32.5 million." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting



    All this while our country has already cut antiretrovirals for children in Africa with zero warning or opportunity for private org or another country to take over. Our legacy as a country is going to look pretty gross.



    This is a well researched article, my main disagreement in this field is the hubris necessary to even think greater tax receipts are the goal, and this is reflected in the language choice.

    I think this is a blind spot as it seems the only people interested would be those hoping for some kind of "tax justice" which taps into a popular sentiment: people choosing to wonder why we aren't being screwed equally, instead of wondering why we are being screwed at all.

    I get it, your tax bill comes and is inconvenient, someone else in a seemingly higher tax bracket seems to leverage a card or chess move that you don't have the ability to pursue.

    But this is all a red herring. To the Supreme Court, choosing to go to a gas station in a neighboring town for lower tax rates is just as valid as doing what some multinational does for lower tax rates by having a nominal structure in another country. (And that's from the Supreme Court you actually liked!)

    The aggregate priority of the US government is velocity within the economy. The speed that money moves within the economy, not the revenue collection from [ostensibly] facilitating it.

    And even detractors to this reality can never reach agreement on what a "fair share" is. A completely arbitrary and undefined sentiment, based on a misunderstanding of the world and that individual's own socioeconomic status or outright mediocrity.

    What is the most interesting is that these multinationals are sometimes paying tax somewhere else. Like the article mentions about how they are currently paying Denmark at 22% and have an inability to deduct enough. Ultimately, the state needs to figure out their revenues, taxing earnings is not the only way to do that and its only controversial to say that because some states can't balance their budget without it, and yet, others can by providing a good or service people are willing to pay for.



    Can you explain why you think wanting everyone to comply with the spirit of the (tax) law is "hubris"?


    Um, yes?

    My impression is that huge corporations in a wide variety of industries are using various dodges to more-or-less avoid paying US taxes.

    (But they are paying their US lobbyists and politicians quite generously, so this situation isn't likely to change.)







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