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El Reg reports
Steve Wozniak has spoken out against Apple's tax affairs, saying all companies ought to pay 50 per cent in taxes.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live he said: "I don't like the idea that Apple might be unfair--not paying taxes the way I do as a person.
"I do a lot of work, I do a lot of travel and I pay over 50 per cent of anything I make in taxes and I believe that's part of life and you should do it."
Asked if Apple should pay that amount, he replied: "Every company in the world should."
According to Woz, money was never a factor when he started the biz with Steve Jobs 40 years ago. He added: "Steve Jobs started Apple Computers for money, that was his big thing and that was extremely important and critical and good."
Europe is currently scrutinising Ireland's tax arrangements with Apple over an alleged sweetheart deal with the company. Some have speculated the probe could lead to Apple paying $8bn in back taxes, even though the case is against the Irish government.
(Score: 1) by fubari on Tuesday April 26 2016, @05:13PM
Agreed, MUCH better than income tax.
Seems more like a wealth tax.
1) set income tax = 0.0% (e.g. none)
2) tax wealth @ 0.5% (5/1000, just an example for this thought experiment)
3) balance budget & grow economy
balance budget: puling in way more tax revenue than we do today.
grow economy: taxing money that sits still is an incentive for that money to circulate, or at least for people to think twice about where they park their money.
Wealth = property + things owned.
Some examples...
a) Bank accounts, stocks, bonds.
I would GLADLY trade my income tax %ge for a 0.5% annual tax on what I keep in savings and investments.
b) Physical property (houses, cars, rare paintings, ...)
Insurance companies are regulated; they can provide replacement value + policy duration. 0.5% of the insured value, easy enough.
Again, I would gladly pay 0.5% of the replacement value of my house each year instead of what I pay in income tax (example: $200,000 insurance on house @ 0.5% yields $1,000 per year).
Now imagine this for all corporations and individuals and governments.
I'd set it up for all insurance (property, life, flood, fire, auto, health, ...), no exempt categories otherwise too easy to game the system.
r.e. IP: too hard to value, "auction" is complex and I can see ways to abuse that.
I'd prefer to see whatever wealth is generated from IP be taxed.
Facilities, cash in bank, investments and so on.
r.e. farms:
Don't tax the land value, tax the replacement value of whatever they insure. Farmers insure things like crop damage... property fire insurance for infrastructure & home. Car insurance, truck insurance. If they don't insure a tractor, let it go. Works for conagra as well as Farmer Bob.
It may not be 100% perfect valuation (as if you would get 10 economists to give you the same valuation for an acre of land, or a given patent).
It will be close enough valuation.
It will be 100% fair across the board.
It will be easier to implement.
It works really well for the very poor (no house, no car, no investements? keep pretty much all of your income).
Works not so well for:
tax lawyers, tax accountants, irs auditors