# The Truth About Taxes?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-taxes/143673>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 18, 2002, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-taxes/143673 "2002-12-18T22:47:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-taxes/143673/61 "2002-12-20T01:58:48Z")

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Incidentally, does anyone who actually lives or works there refer to the region as “the” Silicon Valley?

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-taxes/143673/62 "2002-12-20T02:11:15Z")

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😕 It’s the Invasion of the Increasingly Irrelevant Hijacks. What gives here, folks?

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**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-truth-about-taxes/143673/63 "2002-12-20T03:47:25Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RTFirefly \*  
> \*\*The problem of lowering your taxes simply to keep some people from leaving, is that there will _always_ be a Cayman Islands-style tax haven somewhere in the world, unless the right-wing nightmare of one-world government comes to pass. There are no winners in a ‘race to the bottom’, except for the rich.
> 
> Publicly-held corporations are always going to do what they can to maximize income and reduce tax expenditures. If the site of their corporate registration determines their tax status, they they’ll _all_ eventually move to the Caymans.

This reasoning ignores the fact that there is a certain degree of extra cost and hassle to operating offshore (even if the government doesn’t deliberately harass you for it). Thus, keeping taxes below a certain threshold eliminates the incentive to take shelter in a tax haven even if the tax haven continues to offer a lower rate.

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