Should a multinational company pay tax in each country where its customers are?
In April 2018 the New Zealand news site Scoop ran an open conversation on tax, and 334 people voted. Its most agreed statements were about multinationals and public services.
A public Polis conversation on tax in Aotearoa New Zealand
From a public Polis conversation in Aotearoa New Zealand, April 2018: “Tax HiveMind Window”. People wrote statements and voted agree, disagree or pass on each other’s. These rows are the statements most voters agreed with, the ones that split voters most evenly, and the ones the fewest agreed with, out of 71 that at least 15 people voted on. Statements about the voters themselves, insults and unchecked factual claims are left out. Passes are not counted.
Most agreed
We should be following countries like Australia and the UK and ensuring multinationals pay their fair share of tax in New Zealand where people are using their services.
There should be no exemptions to GST as it’s impossible to rationally decide what should and should not be exempt. Exemptions are gamed by companies and are only good for the lawyers.
Polis sorts voters into opinion groups by how they voted across the whole conversation. This one found 2: Group A (40 voters) and Group B (255 voters). These are the statements every group was most likely to agree with, ranked the way Polis ranks common ground: the chance of agreeing in each group, multiplied together. Under them is the statement the groups were furthest apart on.
We should be following countries like Australia and the UK and ensuring multinationals pay their fair share of tax in New Zealand where people are using their services.
Group A25 agreed, 5 disagreed (83%)
Group B158 agreed, 0 disagreed (100%)
Good quality, accessible public services are the necessary foundations for any well-functioning nation
Group A29 agreed, 6 disagreed (83%)
Group B209 agreed, 1 disagreed (100%)
People who fall on hard times should have access to basic services in a timely manner. These should be funded by national taxes.
Group A26 agreed, 4 disagreed (87%)
Group B195 agreed, 0 disagreed (100%)
Where they split
NZ should reduce tax on income and increase it on wealth and pollution.
Written for the hearth so this question has a whole card on each side to argue with. No visitor wrote them, so the two parts only a person can fill are empty: what happened to you, and who on the other side called the case against fair.
Yes
Where this card stands
Yes. A company that sells to people in a country uses its roads, courts and workers, and should pay tax there in proportion to its sales.
How sure, before and after the case against
The strongest case against it
Taxing by where customers are means each country taxes the same profit its own way, and small exporters get buried in rules from dozens of countries.
What would change this card’s mind
If a sales-based system cost small firms more to comply with than the extra tax it raised from large ones.
“Argue with this card” opens the card on the front page with this card’s position as the case against you. You write where you stand and what would change your mind.