About those tax "loopholes"

Getting mad at companies for taking advantage of tax "loopholes" is like getting mad at extreme couponers.

There's a common sentiment that companies are doing something wrong, unethical or even illegal by doing tax planning that involves multiple states or countries. Most large companies aren't going to do anything illegal in these scenarios. Beyond that, it's just a matter of finding the best deal. If that deal happens to lead to great savings, so be it.

When an extreme couponer manages to pay $3 for 4 grocery carts of food, who do we blame? No one, really, we just marvel that they were able to combine their coupons and store deals and everything. If anyone is at fault, it's the store for having double coupon days or whatever. Practically giving away hundreds of dollars of groceries would be the exploitatoin of a "loophole", and if anyone should shut that down, it's the store.

It's not a company's job to lobby for a state or country to change how they operate. Any preferential tax deals were created because there was a mutual benefit at the time: maybe a state got a company to set up shop there, etc. States and countries need to decide if they're getting a bad deal and change their tax laws if they are. Just keep in mind that changing the terms of the deal may turn off your big client... and then they take their money elsewhere.