The law of the land is more often than not decades old. Many laws have been rewritten to accommodate the changing stride of the world like the laws pertaining to same sex marriage and individual privacy. One segment of laws that has not yet gotten a makeover is corporate taxation. From time immemorial, companies have been taxed based on their physical presence. In today’s globalized and digital world, that is an outdated concept.
Multinational corporations make a lot of money, a lot. A look at some of the revenue figures of top tech companies in 2020*:
- Amazon: $386 billion
- Apple: $274 billion
- Facebook: $86 billion
- Google: $182 billion
Notwithstanding, they make use of an army of lawyers and ever
present loopholes (call them provisions? Concessions?) in countries’ tax
structures to take home as many dollars as possible, duly circumventing what is
owed to the governments. Alas, we cannot blame the corporates entirely either,
the demands of capitalism bear on their shoulders.
