This is simply not true. In Denmark we have a welfare and tax scheme that benefits the majority at the expense of the productive few and the poor (Director's law?). I have never met a danish entrepreneur who didn't complain about taxes, never ever... http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/...
And I have never met one who did complain about taxes (I haven't asked about it either).
The danish successful entrepreneur Morten Strunge recently entered the tax discussion saying that he did not think much about taxes and that current proposed tax reliefs would not make much difference to him.
I see myself as an entrepreneur and I am not complaining about taxes.
In fact I have a hard time seeing taxes as something working particularly against entrepreneurs.
1) When you're an entrepreneur you keep your salary low and you re-invest the profit in your company. This will limit the amount of taxes you pay personally and in the company.
2) As an entrepreneur you likely have a dream about huge growth in the company and making a lot of money in the end. Why would you worry about having marginally less "lot of money" in the end?
How do you define "marginally less"? Open your eyes and look at the graph I posted.
Let me name the obvious few: Christensen and Fornais (Saxo Bank), Jesper Buch (Just Eat), Mads Peter Veiby (M1), Lars Tvede, Toke Kruse (billys), Martin Thorborg (Jubii/Amino/Dinero/Agera). They are all members of Liberal Alliance and all of them frequently advocate lower taxes. Janus Friis (Skype) fled the country to avoid taxes (nuff said). I have met at least 50 entrepreneurs who openly complained about the current level of taxation.
Using the numbers in the graph, if you make 1 billion you would have 580 mio. after taxes in Denmark and 720 mio. in UK. The difference is huge in absolute numbers but relatively it is not. I doubt that entrepreneurs would have any less drive or motivation to succeed because of this difference.
> Christensen and Fornais (Saxo Bank), Jesper Buch (Just Eat), Mads Peter Veiby (M1), Lars Tvede, Toke Kruse (billys), Martin Thorborg (Jubii/Amino/Dinero/Agera)
Most of these are liberalists who happens to be entrepreneurs. They also all belong to the commercial/business type of entrepreneurs.
DHH would beg to differ with you. He's stated a few times that he's a successful entrepreneur because of the Danish social safety net (and the taxes that pay for it).
That is a very simplistic attitude. First of all, I have met countless entrepreneurs who support this "scheme", just to counter your anecdotal evidence. Second, shouldn't a "welfare scheme" benefit the poor, not exist at the expense of them? Are you arguing that the danish welfare system failed in what could be considered it's most essential undertaking? Third, "benefits the majority at the expense of the productive few" doesn't ring true to me. You make it sound like the "productive few" do not receive the same benefits as everyone else, and that the fact that everyone else receives benefits is inconsequential. It's not. Time and again (financial) equality in society has proven to be immeasurably beneficial, in so many regards.
