united-states
Can shareholders compel a company to not pay taxes?
<p>Can shareholders compel a company to evade taxes? Logically, if they think it is in their interest the company has to do it. The charter of a corporation is to make money for shareholders, I don't think most charters require the company to follow the law of a specific federal government.</p>
<p>And, they are not aiding or abetting anything. They are just exercising shareholder rights.</p>

<h1>No</h1>
<p>Any conduct that demands someone does something unlawfully is unlawful. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/chapter-I" rel="noreferrer">Taxes are laws and regulations.</a> <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/tax_evasion" rel="noreferrer">Not paying the taxes is unlawful</a>, especially under <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7201" rel="noreferrer">26 USC 7201</a>. So the shareholders are not only demanding the company to break laws, they <strong>aid and abett</strong> such behavior, making them <strong>also</strong> liable together with the company as there is <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2" rel="noreferrer">18 USC 2</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.</p>
<p>(b) Whoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense against the United States, is punishable as a principal.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It could <strong>also</strong> be inciting to violate laws. It is <strong>not</strong> a shareholder's right to ask for someone to break the law.</p>
