Well brought-up individuals are taught not to take things from other people’s pockets: “Thou shall not steal.” There are those who never learned the lesson ― criminals, and many in the global political class. The latest targets of the global looters are multinational corporations.

As reported in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper: “The U.N. has urged governments to stem the flow of funds to tax havens after companies funneled $221 billion into countries with low tax rates last year.” The article goes on to say, “[U.N. Conference on Trade and Development] said the growing practice among multinational corporations of diverting profits to low tax jurisdictions denied vital investment funds to developing world countries.”

This effort to tax companies more raises a series of questions. Is it wrong for corporate officers to try legally to minimize their company’s tax bills? No, in fact, corporate officers have a fiduciary responsibility to their stockholders, employees and even their customers to minimize costs, including taxes.

The corporate tax is paid by their customers in terms of higher prices, their workers in terms of lower wages, and their stockholders in terms of lower dividends and capital gains.

To the economically ignorant (including the media and many politicians), it sounds like a free lunch to tax corporations. But, in reality, if there were no corporate taxes, there would be better capital allocation and hence, higher growth, more jobs and, ultimately, more tax revenue for governments at lower rates.

It is no surprise that the efforts to artificially allocate corporate profits are led by politicians, lawyers, government bureaucrats and officials of nongovernmental organizations, who have little or no experience in real job and wealth creation.