Corporations and their tax payments distract the full attention the citizens deserve from their governments

Sir, I refer to John Plender’s “A strange aversion to corporate tax” January 4. I have an aversion to corporate taxes that is not duly reflected there.

In my homeland Venezuela the government gets directly 97 percent of all exports and, when oil prices are high, we citizens become almost a nuisance to those in charge of administrating such revenues… only when oil prices are low do they begin to remember us.

As a result I have held that the ideal tax system is that in which the government gets all of its income directly from identified citizens… not anonymous sales taxes, and that makes me to have an aversion to corporate taxes too. The corporations, with their often very high profits equally, quite often, constitute a distraction that hinders the governments to give full attention to us citizens.

100 percent citizens based tax system, true tax heavens, would also be the best way to diminish the needs for tax havens.

http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-tax-paradise.html

@PerKurowski ©

To reduce tax dodging, and strengthen democracy, do a full Monty and eliminate corporate taxes altogether.

Sir, John Kay is entirely correct arguing that existent corporate taxation, among other in the G8 has many serious flaws, and so “Don’t blame the havens – tax dodging is everyone else’s fault” June 19. And he presents many well reasoned ideas on how the corporate tax structure could be improved… but perhaps in this case the good might be the enemy of the perfect.

I would instead dare John Kay to think about a full Monty, and eliminate corporate taxes altogether, not only because these all will, sooner or later, at the end of the day, one way or another, end up being paid by citizens, but without allowing for the full tax representation they should have. A zero corporate tax would not only help reduce tax-dodging, but it would also help to strengthen democracy, as less would come between the citizens and their governments.

EU, ECB, what “Robin Hood” taxes are you talking about? Sounds like mislabeling to me

Sir, Ralph Atkins writes “ECB offers to recast‘Robin Hood’ tax amid fears over market impact” May 27, and I just have to ask “What Robin Hood tax?” as in its current form it seems just to be another tax collected by a Sheriff of Nottingham to feed the coffers of Prince John. 

PS. Never forget, nothing as effective against tax-havens than tax-heavens

The only acceptable antidote against tax-havens should be tax-heavens

Sir, Jeffrey Sachs’ unrestrained attack on tax-havens, shows there are many ways of exploiting tax havens. “Austerity exposes the global threat from tax havens” April 30.

As a citizen, I have for a long time held that the best enemy of tax havens is the existence of tax heavens, by which I mean countries in which a government respectfully earns its fiscal revenues by delivering good government. 

I come from a country, Venezuela, which in the 80s I saw rescued after its governments, after being excessively financed by foreign banks, had submerged into a total crisis, precisely because its citizens had saved abroad, and were able to return resources to their nation when they felt conditions so merited, instead of allowing these resources also to get wasted.

And I sure pray that for instance in Greece’s case, there is also a lot of Greek private capital in safe havens, ready to return to their country. And so, in this respect Sachs should start by making sure we have good and worthy politicians, before closing the escape doors on desperate citizens, which can otherwise most probably lead to having even worse politicians.

Also, over and over again in these debates about tax-havens we read about immense amounts tucked away, implying that if only governments could lay their hand on it, the world would be saved. In this case “Recent estimates by the Tax Justice Network suggest that deposits are in the range of $21tn.” Deposits… what deposits? All that money is placed somewhere and so if it was recovered by governments in its entirety it might very well just mean that $21tn was taken out of private management, like the stock markets, and handed over to perhaps inept and corrupt governments. Would that save the world? Forget it.

Finally, I would wish to remind Professor Sachs that public greed can easily be even much more destabilizing than private greed.