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Outrage At Microsoft Offshoring Tax In the UK, Google Caught Avoiding US Taxes
Master Of Ninja writes "After the ongoing row about companies not paying a fair share of tax in the United Kingdom, and with companies such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google being in the headlines, focus has now turned to Microsoft. Whilst the tax arrangements are strictly legal, there has been outrage on how companies are avoiding paying their fair share of tax generated in the country."
And over here in the U.S., dstates sent in news of Google getting caught doing something similar: "Bloomberg reports that Google is using Bermuda shell companies to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes worldwide. By routing payments and recording profits in zero-tax havens, multinational companies have been avoiding double digit corporate taxes in the U.S. and Europe. Congressional hearings were held in July on the destructive consequences of off-shoring profits. Why aren't the U.S. and Europe exerting more diplomatic pressure on these tax havens that are effectively stealing from the U.S. and European treasuries by allowing profits that did not result from activities in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands to be recorded as occurring there?"
"Why aren't the US and Europe exerting more diplomatic pressure on these tax havens...?"
Because where else would US politicians offshore their income? http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accounts
Sent from my ENIAC
If only this could apply to regular people - Hey some people are shoplifting the food from the market, let's just lower the price to a point where it's not worth bother... But I guess this only applies to the well-to-do..
I know this is crazy, but maybe the problem is the taxes. It doesn't make any sense at all tax corporate profits when you could just as easily tax the income shareholders make from the profits, or capital gains in the event a corporation doesn't post dividends.
As a publicly traded company, you risk being sued by your shareholders if you do NOT use such tax arrangements as soon as you learn about the possibility. So putting the blame on Google/MS isn't exactly rational.
Problem is that the rich make the laws. So they adjust the rules to benefit themselves unfairly.
Hey there poor person, why don't you have your investments setup in IRAs and 401(k)s? You should get into the consulting business and write a few books. Capital gains taxes are rather agreeable. What's that you say, you can't afford food? Well, if you'd taken my advise ...
This signature is false.
Because where else would US politicians offshore their income? http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accounts
I'm NO friend of Mitt Romney - to put it mildly. But let's not blame him for something that's not his doing.
1) Because Romney was running for president, US law REQUIRES he put his money in a blind trust.
2) Also under US law the trustee has a "fiduciary duty" to do his reasonable best to protect and grow Romney's money for him. That includes seeing to it that is not taxed substantially more than the law requires. If he can save, say, 40% of the trust's earnings from being taxed away by using a LEGAL tax haven in Bermuda, and trustees of such trusts are expected to know that, he is REQUIRED BY LAW to do so.
So let's not have cheap shots against politicians and financial managers who are only doing what the law REQUIRES them to do.
There are plenty of things politicians have done that we can LEGITIMATELY go after them about - which have zapped us to the tune of trillions of dollars - at $3,175.40 from EACH citizen for EACH trillion. Let's not the dilute the discussion, and give them something to use to discredit their critics, by flaming them over drops in the bucket that AREN'T THEIR FAULT.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
That's bullshit. Bermuda's tax laws have nothing to do with it. It is American tax law that makes the leeching so profitable.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
All of this crap is legal, that's why they call it tax 'avoidance'. It's not right, or fair, but it is legal.
Lets at least get the metaphors slightly more accurate.
Store A is charging $20 for a loaf of bread, but provides an awesome atmosphere, chairs, clean eating space, nice employees, free coffee, and massages while you eat your loaf of bread. Store B sells the same bread for $5, but you can't eat your bread there. So you buy your bread from Store B, and then expect Store A to let you stay in Store A to eat your bread.
Companies pay taxes to pay for the externalities that they take advantage of while doing business in a country.
http://www.donarmstrong.com
And frankly, every single one of us does it when we can get away with it, as well.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
LMFAO. The government is incompetent and writes bad rules so they get exploited... I'm a libertarian so we can have less rules... That's like saying "I got mugged once - the police system doesn't work! Let's abolish all laws."
This is why libertarians aren't taken seriously. If you really think semi-anarchy leaves one free to build one's own future, you should take a look at (semi)-anarchies throughout history and across the world now. Warlords, (robber) barons, and a feudal system do not make for a better world.
some sort of perpetual serfdom to the landed classes that see us only as rubes to exploit, cows to milk, or votes to pander to?
That's what we have right now, which is why the subject is being debated so much. Class warfare has been in place for generations, and the rich have won it. Again. This is not the first time in history, either. The last time, the result was really really ugly. The French Revolution is the favorite example of just how ugly it gets.
So. We're talking about it. Again. Because it happened. Again. Now it's time to figure out how to bash them back into a box so we can get on with civilization for another few hundred years until the next time the sociopathic assholes win the rigged game AGAIN. It's about goddamn time there was some reverse class warfare. Again. But this time, we're trying to figure out how to accomplish it without blood in the streets. There are a lot more of us now than there ever have been before, so if we do it French Revolution style, you could only dream of your semi-anarchy where one is free to build one's future as best one can. What you'll get instead is pogroms that would make Stalinist Russia look like a picnic in the park with sunshine and birdies and champagne.
Capitalism has broken civilization. Again. It happens on a regular basis. It's a bug in the system. Historically, the solution to the bug is a system reboot with guns. This time, we would prefer to fix the problem without armed revolution. We like peace and quiet. We like it quite a lot. Violent crime has been declining even in the gun-happy United States. But we DON'T like playing in a rigged game we're guaranteed to lose because a very very small group of people have already won it.