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Tax Accounting Evil at Google?
theodp writes "In its annual report, Google said it's done no tax-accounting evil, but the search giant acknowledged that both the IRS and SEC are taking a look at the way in which it accounts for income tax. Google is one of a number of U.S. companies that have come under fire for allegedly practicing 'profit laundering', i.e., moving book profits offshore to evade millions and even billions in taxes to the country where it really operates. In past SEC filings, Google has credited its Irish subsidiary for reducing its effective tax rate."
Support the FairTax, bring corporate headquarters back to the US and end this ridiculous waste of everyone's time.
While I doubt that this is a case of Civil Disobedience, you are correct it's not evil. But it's so much fun to label any non-wonderful Google practice as "evil" because of their "do no evil" ideal.
We are all just people.
The US has this strange rule where profit earned by subsidiaries in other countries must pay income tax to the US, even if those subsidiaries have no US presence or customers. As a consequence of this many US companies have their offical headquarters in Bermuda, which has either no or much lower corporate income tax.
Currently the US foreign policy is driven by warmongering and profiteering. The US military has been outsourced to corporate mercenaries and little regard is given to the well-being of the actual force.
We're about to start a navel and air war with Iran, we're ignoring Darfur, we're disregarding our own people in their time of need (Katrina) and we're supporting countries on questionable moral ground.
If anything qualifies as evil, all that does. So if Google is avoiding paying taxes to a government which executes such evil behavior I'd say they're living up to their mantra.
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
I know a few tax lawyers. The tax laws of the U.S. have grown so complex over the decades that it has become literally impossible for one person to know them all. Tax law firms have lawyers dedicated to specific portions of the tax code.
When you have a set of rules as ridiculously long as the U.S. tax codes, it basically makes it impossible to comply 100%, because no matter what you do, there will be a segment SOMEWHERE in that massive wall of text that you unintentionally violate.
The novelty about the deeply complicated tax laws is that loopholes abound - it may be the specific reason the government maintains its complexity.
Google trying to minimize its tax burden is just good business. That they seem to have done it in a way that is suspect doesn't mean they intentionally broke a law, it probably means they did it so well that the IRS isn't sure it's legal or not.
But again, with tax codes as complex as ours, it will probably fall into the realm of ambiguity so that it can either be legal OR illegal, which is yet another governmental advantage of highly complicated tax laws.
"Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
Does anyone think that perhaps corporations shouldn't pay taxes at all? In thinking about basic economic realities, I've been leaning in this direction. It sounds like a bit of a radical idea on the surface, but it's always seemed to me that taxing a corporation is really just an indirect tax on anyone who uses that corporations's services or products. In other words, they'll just raise prices to the point that they're making a profit, and thus simply pass along any increased tax burden to the consumer.
It's the same sort of hidden tax as the idea of having employers pay for half of your social security benefits. Where do you think the extra revenue comes to do this? Higher prices on products and lower wages. The government loves to obscure the true source of taxes, especially when they can make it appear that someone else is really paying for them. These are two good examples.
Am I missing something in my logic here? I haven't really heard anyone else talking about this (although I haven't looked all that hard). My suspicion is that this would never fly, if only for the huge political target you'd make yourself for even bringing this up.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
First, the income tax is progressive.
Hook. line, sinker, rod, reel, basket, boots, and copy of Angling Times.
John Kerry's exceptionally rich wife pays about 10% of her income in taxes. What's your rate?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."