Many EU countries have a “VAT” and like feel like this is kinda targeting poor people. Like, for the rich, this is insignificant, for poorer people, a (example) 20% tax would be a huge burden. Why do they do this?

🤔

  • Apepollo11@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Ah, ok. Sorry, I thought you were referring to well-off ‘ordinary’ people.

    Totally agree that the way governments fawn over corporations is beyond the pale.

    • DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Understandable and it’s there that things get blurry. I don’t think anyone can argue that Amazon’s bottom line is Bezos but on paper Bezos doesn’t have any money because all of his monetary value is tied up in assets. A person with that much money simply ties everything to their company and suddenly they’re corporate assets instead of personal belongings, thus tax deductible (imagine the Spongebob rainbow meme here) along with the plethora of other advantages these people get just for being wealthy. Heck, this doesn’t even apply to only the insanely wealthy. With a smart accountant, it’s applicable to business owners.

      Some years ago I worked for a small company where the owner would declare all of his purchases as business assets. Some of those items would become “loss leaders” and simply “disappear” while others would get “rented” to himself at a “generous discount” until he chose to sell it. I got to learn just how perfectly legal it all was the hard way because by the time I was done at the company, I was looking for the biggest bus I could throw him under and it turned out there weren’t any. Made me want to puke.