"Don't expect sympathy" – everyone to Lagarde

Sounds reasonable to me. if she paid tax, it would go to the united nations. Who pay her salary.

Anyone got a good reason why paying her 200k & taxing at 50% would make more sense than paying her 100k and taxing at 0%?

edit^ I'd apply the same reasoning to British civil servants.
 
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Her comments sound a bit silly on the face of it but she's right, the Greeks do need to sort their **** out. I don't believe she had any involvement in getting tax exempt too...she took the job and that was part of it.
 
Biohazard said:
The EU can't boot anyone out of the Euro as far as I am aware, and if we started to boot countries out willy nilly over disagreements on tax policy I don't think there would be much EU left unless this sort of rhetoric is stored up and launched singularly at Greece.
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What happens if Greece defaults....

(not talking technical defaults triggering various CDSs etc.. but new govt, full on rejection of austerity plan and any commitments to pay back loans...)
 
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Strife212 said:
How has he in any way been owned?

No one is questioning the legality of it, it just makes her a hypocrite. It's very easy to say "all pay your taxes" when you don't pay a penny yourself.
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It's very easy to say "all pay your taxes" when you do pay tax yourself too, because everyone should know that governments don't pay for stuff with magic beans.

It does not make someone a hypocrite if they say:

"I work for an international diplomatic organisation funded through assessed and voluntary contributions from our member states. Given that much of our work involves travelling and there are disproportionately high numbers of officials in countries such as the USA, the expense of the calculation of accurate income taxes and the likelihood of disproportionate allocation, I receive a tax-free, though not especially high, salary.

Countries need to enforce taxation rules to maintain economic stability".
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dowie said:
What happens if Greece defaults....

(not talking technical defaults triggering various CDSs etc.. but new govt, full on rejection of austerity plan and any commitments to pay back loans...)
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They get punched in the face again by Germany, told to "pay taxes" and to shut up?

If Greece can't meet its obligations while in the Euro everyone else is going to have to keep passing over bad money after bad, otherwise the Euro is probably gone. If anything it would probably be safer for the institutions had they let them reject the Euro - as it looked likely - but they refused that option in something I could only describe as vanity.

So pffft I don't really know. How many bailouts and firewalls have we been though now? It isn't sustainable and nothing is improving.
 
Yeah the main problem IMO is that the austerity measures and high taxes would have to be implemented over several years while having very little public support... even if the next election in June does produce a govt that carries on with the plan (which isn't necessarily going to happen) I'd wager that there would be increasing resentment from the population and in any subsequent elections anti-austerity parties will fare even better... whether in this coming election or in the next one its likely someone will get in on the basis of rejecting the austerity measures...
 
Biohazard said:
How many bailouts and firewalls have we been though now? It isn't sustainable and nothing is improving.
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They've not done a proper bailout for Greece yet. The only way to fix it is to issue Eurobonds, if they do that then it'll stop the problem. If they'd done it last year it would have been cheaper that it will be now. Germany is dead against Eurobonds.
 
Dolph said:
Stockhausen in yet another complete failure to understand tax liabilities shocker....
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I don't know why he's not considered to be breaking forum rules. He posts ill thought out trolling threads then walks away.

They're serious enough issues to go in Speaker's Corner - however he's need to articulate his point much better than he's doing.

His threads are detrimental to the forum, at least Kwerk is funny.
 
Wow, a forum of right-wing simpletons yet again completely missing the point. I don't think anyone has claimed that Ms Lagarde has done anything technically wrong, but nevertheless there's something not right about lecturing people going through absolute hell right now about taxes when you live in a cosy, convenient world where somehow you get an exemption from paying tax.
 
scorza said:
Wow, a forum of right-wing simpletons yet again completely missing the point. I don't think anyone has claimed that Ms Lagarde has done anything technically wrong, but nevertheless there's something not right about lecturing people going through absolute hell right now about taxes when you live in a cosy, convenient world where somehow you get an exemption from paying tax.
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She hasn't got an exemption on paying tax - her IMF salary is tax free, that is all.
 
scorza said:
Wow, a forum of right-wing simpletons yet again completely missing the point. I don't think anyone has claimed that Ms Lagarde has done anything technically wrong, but nevertheless there's something not right about lecturing people going through absolute hell right now about taxes when you live in a cosy, convenient world where somehow you get an exemption from paying tax.
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Bloody lefty loon!
 
scorza said:
Wow, a forum of right-wing simpletons yet again completely missing the point. I don't think anyone has claimed that Ms Lagarde has done anything technically wrong, but nevertheless there's something not right about lecturing people going through absolute hell right now about taxes when you live in a cosy, convenient world where somehow you get an exemption from paying tax.
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I don't see any irony or hypocrisy. Greece has endemic tax evasion problems, which have crippled any chance of resilience when it comes to public spending.

Lagarde isn't a tax evader, and is an international diplomat resident pretty much everywhere in the world. To whom would you like her to pay tax, and how much?
 
The Halk said:
They've not done a proper bailout for Greece yet. The only way to fix it is to issue Eurobonds, if they do that then it'll stop the problem. If they'd done it last year it would have been cheaper that it will be now. Germany is dead against Eurobonds.
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Bailouts and rescue packages that cover years worth of liabilities, the deficit and fallen matured bonds is a bailout.

They've had several proper bailouts for Greece according to what I understood a bailout to be anyway. Or shoring, but by any definition they have had significant assistance from European and Global institutions. Several times.

I also think Eurobonds incur the exact same risk as the Euro itself, it's another politically driven proposal that has the exact same risk. There would be no accountability of those who rack up bond liabilities by the bucket load, and the burden will again fall on other nations. It may help a Greek exit or default, but it would only be of benefit for that period alone. I hate to say it but for once I believe we're better off suffering now than having to double fold later on, and having a diverging Europe fiscally and in monetary terms while still yoked under a single issuance is almost the same problem again. Or potential. The EU has no track record on holding itself against its own rules either so I wouldn't trust it to have a second go in effect.
 
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