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IRS Looking at Google/Mozilla Relationship
ric482 writes "With the release of the Mozilla Foundation's 2007 financial report, questions have been raised by the IRS, who are due to perform an audit on the non-profit organization behind the massively popular Firefox browser.
Last year, the Foundation received $66 million of its total $75 million revenue (88 percent) from search engine maestros Google, so the IRS are looking for blood over the organization's tax exempt status. Back in 2006, Mozilla got $59.5 million from Google — around 85 percent of the organization's revenue.
Google and Mozilla are part of a 'you scratch my back, I'll pay your bills' sort of agreement, with the Google search bar firmly placed in the toolbar, and on the default homepage. Things were a bit rocky a couple of months back when Google unveiled the Beta-run of its Chrome browser, but Mozilla and Google hugged it out and sealed a deal that will last for another three years. That deal will expire in November 2011."
My version of Firefox just has a regular "search bar" that defaults to Google.
If I want another search, e.g., AbeBooks.com, I just change it to that. Does it become an "AbeBooks.com search bar" then?
Or... They are just doing their job and investigating possible suspicious activities. If Microsoft did the same thing you would be all up in arms on how Microsoft is trying get out of paying more taxes. But Google with Mozilla, that has to be different. Innocent until proven guilty, they are investigating it as it looks fishy but that is.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
What do they plan to tax? Their revenues? Is it just that whenever there's money anywhere the IRS thinks uncle sam should get a share of it? Are they claiming that Firefox is some kind of tax shelter? I don't think that's the case. . .
How come there is no story associated with this summary?
The law is very rigid today. To start an organization, you have to jump through a lot of hoops and hurdles to be in compliance with everything from labor practices, to filing the right corporate status, to paying the right taxes. It would be a lot easier for society to find creative ways to reorganized itself if there were no corporate taxes.
Besides, corporate taxes are asinine. Not only are the costs transferred to the public in the form of higher costs and lost employment opportunities, most corporations have successfully figured out how to avoid paying most taxes anyway. It'd be better to just cut our losses, tighten up spending, and tax only individuals.
Generally speaking -- and I'm not specifically accusing Mozilla -- non-profit status is rarely what it seems. Usually the motivation in setting this status up is to avoid certain rules or taxes. It's only proper that this is investigated in Mozilla's case, if most of their income does come from a large highly-successful company.
The IRS should also be taking a very, very close look at Wikipedia. For those reasons, and also the fact that there have been individuals in that organization that have shady financial histories.
I seem to remember that after a new IE7 install, I get asked if I want to switch search engine providers (among a whole load of preferences on first use) - but I don't get asked the same after a new FireFox install...
The problem I have with it is that there are thousands of bugs opened against Firefox, Seamonkey, Thunderbird, etc that have been open for years that don't get addressed because there aren't enough developers. The Mozilla foundation should be using those millions of dollars to hire programmers (especially in this economy) to fix those bugs and add those long sought-after features. The last thing they should be doing is investing in the stock market!!!!!!!!!
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart