Creative Capitalism Gets Microsoft $528M Tax Break

NewsCloud writes "Microsoft makes products in Washington but records software sales to PC makers and high-volume customers through an operation in Nevada, where there is no corporate tax. So Washington has missed out on more than half a billion in taxes; revenue it could use for badly needed infrastructure needs — such as the needed replacement of the 520 bridge which connects Seattle ... to Microsoft. Reported by Slashdot in 2004, the numbers have increased with the company's growth to approx. $76M in savings last year alone. The author questions the legality of the practice given Microsoft's 35,500+ employees and 11.2 million square feet of real estate in Washington state."

Comments

Infrastructure?

[kpainter]

So Washington has missed out on more than half a billion in taxes; revenue it could use for badly needed infrastructure needs
Yeah, but were? From what I can see, this money would be spent in Iraq anyway. Every cent kept out of the hands of the politicians is a cent well spent.

TFA's author is a Microsoft millionaire

[quux4]

Did anyone notice? He linked his earlier Seattle Weekly article, in which he writes:

"And it has created more than 10,000 millionaires from stock options, including me. (I worked for Microsoft from 1991 to 1999 as a technology manager.)"

Ironic, eh? I wonder if he bothered to calculate the percentage of his own money which resulted from the shenanigans he accuses MS of, and gave it to the state?

He did (in the Seattle Weekly article) mention the more than a billion dollars the Gates Foundation has given to Pacific Northwest, and the many charitable donations MS has also made in the area. But he quickly moved on to more of the liberal 'evil M$ fatcats profit on the backs of the poor' rhetoric which Seattle Weekly readers love to read.