I agree with many of the sentiments here, as a non-American coming from a dispotic regim. I spend months in the US to explore setting up my startup here and to talk to investors and possible clients -
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I was put off by the tax system.
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The taxes are too high, and too complex.
With such high taxes I'm surprised the gov has so much debt.
Sure there are places with higher taxes.
But I thought America was the land of opportunity, the mecca of Capitalism.
It stil was all that - I would love to have the option to stay there - an amazing experience - the quality of life and the level of consumer choice is fantastic.
However America should consider copying the tax codes of places like Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan.
The biggest challenge is of course the federal system which imposes taxes seperately at the state and central gov/federal level - making things complicated - but of course in return creates stronger local alignment and more choice. (Better for democratic freedom)
But especially business taxes need to top out at lower level at the federal level.
In my opinion, as an outsider.
We ended up NOT registering our business in the US and would only do so if forced by investors - but we'll be bootstrapping for a while so not a consideration.
The US as a place to register a startup for an outsider, is a seriously unattractive proposition.
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On top of this the US has this batshit crazy policy of double taxation for international people.
Most other countries have double taxation treatiea so that you aren't taxed twice on the same income!
Everyone is put off by the tax system. It's a product of 300 years of cronyism. Want your tax break? Pay lobby Firm Jones and Smith, LLP on K-street a few million dollars, and in goes your clause as a subsection of an anti-gun hysteria bill passed right after some white elementary school kids in Connecticut get massacred. Like for-profit-prisons, there are too many people who count on the existing tax framework to see any actual alteration of it. The defense department needs their billions, as do the sub-contractors who make money charging 4x the market rate for because they're part of some GSA Alliance contract vehicle; the tax attorneys at Skadden depend on it being complicated, the hundreds of thousands of CPAs do too, as do the people employed by the IRS. If you change the tax-code to something like HK, all of those economic sub-sectors fall apart.
As someone who's a partner at a consultancy and in the highest marginal tax bracket, I'd be more than happy to pay my fair share if companies like Apple and Exxon didn't use countries like Ireland to avoid remittance taxes to the tune of 250 billion dollars a year, effectively putting the burden on the rest of us. (Well that and if we stopped spending 5x the aggregate of the next most-heavily invested countries re: defense, and re-allocate even 5% of that money to national education, STEM programs for innercity kids, the arts, and the NSF but again, fat chance of that happening.)
* I was put off by the tax system. *
The taxes are too high, and too complex.
With such high taxes I'm surprised the gov has so much debt.
Sure there are places with higher taxes.
But I thought America was the land of opportunity, the mecca of Capitalism.
It stil was all that - I would love to have the option to stay there - an amazing experience - the quality of life and the level of consumer choice is fantastic.
However America should consider copying the tax codes of places like Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan.
The biggest challenge is of course the federal system which imposes taxes seperately at the state and central gov/federal level - making things complicated - but of course in return creates stronger local alignment and more choice. (Better for democratic freedom)
But especially business taxes need to top out at lower level at the federal level.
In my opinion, as an outsider.
We ended up NOT registering our business in the US and would only do so if forced by investors - but we'll be bootstrapping for a while so not a consideration.
The US as a place to register a startup for an outsider, is a seriously unattractive proposition.
- On top of this the US has this batshit crazy policy of double taxation for international people.
Most other countries have double taxation treatiea so that you aren't taxed twice on the same income!
The US does not.