The History Of Tax Dodgers
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The French Revolution was one of the bloodiest chapters in human history. The device of Dr Guillotine took so many heads that bigger baskets had to be made to gather up those dismembered and rolling free during the frenzy of executions. Did you know that the fundamental cause of the French Revolution was a taxation problem? The French nobles and the church did not pay tax and Louis XVI could not raise enough money to meet the nation’s needs. Repeatedly, the nobles and church hierarchy were asked to pay their fair share via taxes and they refused. The Parlements, the supreme courts of pre-revolutionary France, denied requests from the king and his representatives to consider new taxes. This would lead to the establishment of the National Assembly and, eventually, to the demise of the monarchy itself. The history of tax dodgers is rich with examples of the consequences of tax avoidance to nations and empires.
Corporate Tax Minimisation In Australia
Today, we see many corporations committed to tax minimisation and avoidance wherever possible. Indeed, a whole profession called accountants are devoted to achieving this goal by whatever legal means available. If bodies of men and women are united in such endeavours they are not supporting the nation and communities in which they reside and do business. 42% of corporations doing business in Australia paid no company tax in the last financial year, according to data supplied by the ATO. This fact is evidence that they are actively undermining the country in which they are operating by their tax minimisation schemes. It shows a profound disrespect for the nation, the people, and the governance of Australia, in my view. It seems that paying tax is fine for the ordinary working people but that these entities see themselves as above and beyond contributing to things like Medicare and national security. They do business here and make huge profits but dodge their taxation responsibilities via clever accounting and profit shifting.
Tax Dodging Americans
Many of these corporations have their roots in the United States and today’s corporations are influenced more broadly by what goes on there anyway. Americans have a rich history of tax avoidance. Some historians would say that the country is founded on it. The American Revolution grew out of an unwillingness of many Americans in the colonies to pay duties and taxes. The smuggling trade was pervasive throughout the colonies and this kind of thing continued on for decades to come. Eventually, it was Abraham Lincoln who would bring in many such measures as taxes and tariffs a century later.
“1862 – President Lincoln signed into law a revenue-raising measure to help pay for Civil War expenses. The measure created a Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the nation’s first income tax. It levied a 3 percent tax on incomes between $600 and $10,000 and a 5 percent tax on incomes of more than $10,000.”
President Lincoln may have greatly helped establish the Republican party as a major political party in America, but it has been trending downhill ever since in regard to taxation and the popularity of imposing them or paying them among GOP members and supporters. Americans don’t like paying taxes.
Money & Taxes
If you study money and currency you will know that you cannot have money without taxes. The two are inextricably linked. The issuing of money was fundamentally about a means for citizens to pay their taxes. So, the belief by many Americans that taxation is evil and they just want to hang onto all their money misses the point. There would not be money without taxes. Sure, we can all put out two bob’s worth in, as regards to what governments should spend our taxes on, that’s what the political process is all about, but tax avoidance per se is wrong. The modern corporation minimising its taxable income to zero via profit shifting is bad practice, in my view. The Googles, Apples and such like generate vast billions from Australian people and businesses. They shift their profits to Ireland via intracompany IP charges hiding what they really make here. Ireland charges bugger all company tax rates to attract these businesses to their shore.
A Corporate Culture Of Tax Avoidance
The history of tax dodgers points to a disease of decay at the heart of our corporations and the way they do business. Corporations have grown bigger than nations via their avoidance of taxes. The influence and power of states are shrinking whilst the private sector looms ever larger. The profit motive drives the private sector relentlessly. Already, they cast a shadow over the future of the planet. The free market is not going to save the earth from climate change as a priority, if it happens at all it will be a subsidiary of profit making deals between companies.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-Apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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