You can't practically lower taxes enough to compete with tax havens.

In general they have low populations and the companies don't actually do any major activity there (there are few societal costs), so the country can survive and thrive with a very low percentage tax take from many effectively non-resident companies.

Contrast this with countries that have much larger populations. The number of profitable corporations per capita is going to be lower than a country that attracts corporations in simply on the basis of their low tax rate.

You'll notice where countries like Ireland are involved, that do have a population to support, they seem to eventually regret the tax haven arrangements they agreed to in the good times.

>> If companies could spend the millions they spend on setting up these schemes on a low flat tax rate instead it would be worth it for them even if they ended up paying a bit more than by putting the money in a tax haven because of the time being saved and the good publicity + the positive effect that reasonable low taxes have on the economy.

You can't really believe this?