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Microsoft Tax Dodge At Issue In Washington State
newscloud writes "With Washington State facing a billion-dollar biennial budget deficit, the spotlight again shifts to Microsoft's software licensing office in Reno, Nevada. 'Although the majority of its software development is performed in Washington State, Microsoft records its estimated $18 billion in licensing revenue per year through a corporate office in Reno, Nevada where there is no licensing tax. Just by enforcing the state's existing tax law from 2008 onwards, we could reduce Washington's revenue shortfall by more than 70 percent. Alternately, we could pursue the entire $707 million from Microsoft's thirteen years of tax dodging and cover most of the expected deficit going forward.' We have discussed Microsoft's creative capitalism in the past."
Way to blame microsoft for the state deficit.
No state income tax. Instead, WA taxes the shit out of small business. It can be especially hard on retailers because the state B&O tax is based on gross revenue, not profit. In other words, it is totally possible to run a money losing business and owe taxes on top of that. As a small business owner in WA (profitable thankfully), this story has me totally pissed.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
I don't think the guy who writes this article really understands tax law. Neither do I really, but atleast I'll admit it. It seems to me that I remember Tax Avoidance being perfectly legal and accepted. I really think he misunderstands the idea that there's some existing tax law to be enforced that applies to Microsoft's actions. The software is licensed out of NV, hence, NV law applies. There are major jurisdictional issues inherent in taxation law and so far as I can tell as a layman, there's nothing afoul of any regulation going on here.
If there were, you can be sure Washington State would have their hands in Microsoft's pockets already.
That's kind of why most corporations are incorporated in Delaware, too. There's jurisdictional issues being blatantly ignored by this person in order to make a point and that is not justified.
That all said, I did some more reading and it looks like this guy has barked up this tree before.
http://crosscut.com/2008/02/02/microsoft/11167/
which was posted to Slashdot back then
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/04/1520219
and a followup with his anti-arguments to the posts from Slashdot back then.
http://www.idealog.us/2008/02/top-reader-excu.html
Oh and 2004 too:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/01/2137228&tid=109
You'll notice, a year ago, he supposedly already addressed all the issues everyone here could possibly present. Unfortunately, he's also completely ignored the one about the constitutionality of taxation and jurisdiction and focuses more on wishy washy sort of justification arguments made that appeal more to a sense of right or wrong, rather than the case law regarding jurisdictional tax issues.
Career campaigner on this issue, hey Jeff? Too bad you've wasted 5 YEARS on this subject and you're never going to get anywhere because Microsoft is DOING NOTHING WRONG.
There seem to be an awfully high number of people who commute from New Hampshire to work in Massachusetts because of the lack of personal income and sales taxes in NH. There are also a number going the other way to shop because of the lack of sales tax.
Washington keeps an eye on its borders because neither Oregon nor Montana have sales taxes. I've seen roving police patrols stopping motorists coming in who have what looks to be a vehicle full of new consumer goodies. Idaho, at that point, is more of a speed bump than a State. The panhandle is only about 85 miles across on I-90.
How many California companies actually incorporate in Nevada? How many companies from almost every other State incorporate in Nevada for just this purpose?
Lots of people cross the borders from Florida and Tennessee into Georgia to buy gasoline or cigarettes because of the drastic difference in taxes.
Taxes are a big factor when you start making decent money. It is the reason the various States have differing levels of property, sales, corporate and income taxes.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Note that Obama's own budget guys are expecting to run deficits in his first four years (excluding the Stimulus package and bailouts, mind you) that will be larger than the total deficits of Bush's eight years.
Yeah, actually including two wars in your budget will do that.
They thought the same about Boeing. It's now in Chicago.
You want to keep the seat of leadership where you have some hope of seeing a benefit. (Consider Bentonville, AR.) They can move anywhere, anytime they want to. And they have the fiduciary responsibility to do so, or will be sued into oblivion by their own shareholders.
The system is devised that if you have a lot of money, and know what you're doing, you don't pay a lot of taxes.
That's because the people that write tax laws are usually pretty wealthy. They write loopholes in for themselves to take advantage of. I'm personally of the opinion that dramatically simplifying the tax code to prevent this is more important than "fixing" health care.
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde