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Google May Be $1 Billion Behind In Tax Payments To France
An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica reports, 'Technology giant Google has been delinquent on its tax payments in France for the past few years, to the tune of more than $1 billion in missed payments, and it now may be hit with a sizable tax penalty by the French government.' Google asserts that it has operated within the law in France, but the French government has reason to believe that in order to avoid French taxes, Google has been passing off some of its business contracts as Irish rather than French."
Ever heard of the Double Irish and a Dutch sandwich?
The City of London has established a world-spanning network of tax heaven states, mostly consisting of former parts of the english empire. Big corporations use this system to not pay taxes, and the sums involved exceed 1$B by far.
Google, Amazon, Apple escaping taxes and it starts to add up to real money.
Google seems to be consistently dodging taxes. Shouldn't people go to jail for this?
You know, the guys that set up IKEA as a Dutch registered "charity" to funnel profits tax-free??
Look it up!
I would not be surprised if between most of the major corporations that they owe the French more than 50 billion. Hate to cheer for a tax office let alone a French one but what Google et al do tax wise is fucking appalling and needs to be cracked down on by EVERY government.
We have a good figure to start with: the share of GDP that goes to capital or labor. It moved a lot from the later to the former. Should we go back to 1980 values in France, workers (who cannot escape taxes as megacorporations can) would globally get a 195 billion euros bonus each year.
You're making the classic Keynesian mistake that money in transit is money in the economy.
A billion here and a billion there, and it begans to add up pretty quickly.
I wonder why I have been modded down troll and flamebait. Is there anyone here that still believe austerity can benefit a country?
Google has played the same tricks in the UK. Google claims that the sales are made in Ireland, while employing many people in the UK whose job titles includes sales. I expect there are Google employees in France and UK (and most other European countries) who get sales commissions for sales "made" in the Ireland.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
there's a difference between structuring your business to avoid taxes, and not paying taxes that you owe. Goog is the latter. but I feel bad beating up on them lately, especially after the moto thing and their last quarterly report. desktop revenue down 9% even though clicks are up 26%...
According to the DGF investigation, the company only sends Google Ireland contracts, but they are written in French with French clauses, and therefore considered French contracts.
So why don't they write the contracts in English? They'd be easier to read that way.
If they don't like the laws the company is free to not operate in the country. If they choose to operate there they must follow the law. I have no sympathy for them, they knew what the deal was when they stablished there.
Giving the benefit of the doubt, and assuming this a genuine question and not a troll...
The problem is that it is surprisingly difficult to objectively distinguish between legitimate activities in an international business that operates in under multiple tax regimes and the activities which are "obviously" just tax avoidance.
It's hardly a secret that some businesses set up a legal entity that is little more than an administrative formality in a country with a very low corporation tax rate, and then their legal entities in other countries with higher corporation taxes pay some sort of fees/royalties to their low tax counterpart, thus shifting the tax burden and saving them money (as well as changing which country is the beneficiary of the corporation tax they do pay).
The trouble is that the same rules about international payments and taxes have to cover businesses that really do operate, for example, a crucial R&D lab in one country (perhaps with a good reason, such as having close ties to a good university nearby) but still sell the end product to customers internationally. More than that, you also have to allow for the fact that it might be two completely separate legal entities doing that, which may or may not be owned by some of the same interests. After all, if a business in one country spends a lot of time and money hiring smart people to design products, but then sells the IP rights to completely independent manufacturing businesses in other countries that make and sell the physical products, I don't think many people would argue that it's silly to have the money for the rights shifting across international borders back to the people who did the research, and for each individual company involved to pay the appropriate tax in their own country on the money they make in that country.
So where do you draw the line, and on what basis? After all, the businesses in question almost certainly do still pay substantial amounts of money to the countries where they really are selling things, such as sales, property and employment taxes. The "obvious" thing to do is to adjust the tax rates so corporation tax is universally low and more government revenue comes from these other forms of taxation that can't be so readily shifted, but that has a lot of knock-on effects for your entire national tax system, and it's also susceptible to various other kinds of manipulation unless there is a lot of international co-ordination to mitigate those dangers. And remember, the people who are making all this money typically have a lot more to spend on professional tax advice -- and get excellent returns on that investment -- than the governments in question have to spend on challenging them in extended tax-related lawsuits that will drag on for years at great cost to all concerned.
I think there is sufficient public opinion turning against the more egregious examples of corporate tax avoidance now that we really will see such international co-ordination starting to get results within the next few years. France is definitely not the only place concerned about this, at either government or guy-in-the-street level. But for now, the above is (a grossly simplified explanation of) how they get away with it, and why it's neither breaking any laws nor easy to make laws it would break without unintended and potentially very nasty side effects.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
The problem is that they are following the laws in these countries. The governments have the legislative powers and have created tax systems that don't work under these conditions, but instead of fixing the problem, it's politically better PR to just blame the big organisations for having decent accountants.
In cases where that creates a hostile public feeling toward a company, that can be a surprisingly effective strategy -- certain businesses that operate in the UK have recently changed their accounting practices so they declare more taxable income in the UK -- but usually the amounts involved are relatively small, just enough to counter the bad press with a good soundbite about how many million they paid in tax last year -- and it doesn't really work on businesses that utterly dominate their industries and/or don't deal much with the average guy in the street anyway.
Sooner or later, these governments are going to have to get their act together and fix the broken system properly, but I suspect a lot of them are hoping the next election will come and go first so either they have some breathing room or it's someone else's problem.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
you didn't provide links verifying your points. without links it is too hard for the people who regularly get mod points to mod positive, because if you want a soap box on slashdot you should use their journal system. having read the definition of austerity measures it is clear that the usa is also using austerity measures... the world is a complex place, though.
"After the french government committed to economic suicide with austerity policies" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity In economics, austerity describes policies used by governments to reduce budget deficits during adverse economic conditions. These policies may include spending cuts, tax increases, or a mixture of the two.[1][2][3] Austerity policies may be attempts to demonstrate governments' fiscal discipline to their creditors and credit rating agencies by bringing revenues closer to expenditures; they may also be politically or ideologically driven.
In macroeconomics, reducing government deficits generally increases unemployment in the short run.[4] This increases safety net spending and reduces tax revenues, partially offsetting the austerity measures. Government spending contributes to gross domestic product (GDP), so reducing spending may result in a higher debt-to-GDP ratio, a key measure of the debt burden carried by a country and its citizens. Higher short-term deficit spending (stimulus) contributes to GDP growth particularly when consumers and businesses are unwilling or unable to spend. This is because crowding out (i.e., rising interest rates as government bids against business for a finite amount of savings, slowing the economy) is less of a factor in a downturn, as there may be a surplus of savings.[5][6]
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
That seems to be the response these days by governments trying to collect money.
Should Google just buy France?
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
I don't know why this is so surprising. If one place becomes too expensive to operate out of then a corporate will move to someplace that won't try to fleece if for every dime it can get. Or in this case use the law to keep from getting screwed by the frogs.
What, is France gonna send in its army? LMFAO!
That joke is getting stale.
http://www.globalfirepower.com...
What do personal tax rates have to do with a corporation paying corporate taxes? There are no "75%" corporate taxes in France?
A corporation has a choice in whether or not to do business in a country. Google has no problem doing business in countries with regimes with a lot worse policies than a 75% top personal tax rate.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Dear leader? The French president is more like Ronald Reagan than Dear leader lately.
The 75% for income above one million euros (after deductions), was a symbolic measure as it concerns very few people and is still not applied. Just stuff waived around to get elected. Same president had pleaded to renogotiate the treaty on European Stability Mechanism, but didn't. Not a single point or comma was changed. Now this government will get us in the Great Transatlantic Market, or whatever it's called in which US corporations will dictate their laws to the countries and European Union, putting an end to national democracy.
Dear leader my ass! We're trapped, with a presidency and governnement that have "socialist" in name but are right-leaning collaborationists, more in the way of Tony Blair and Gehrard Schroeder.
The USA also has something called Alternative Minimum Tax. That is a rule that gets invoked when it looks like someone is trying to game the system. Essentially, it gives the tax service the power to impose a tax. France is doing the same thing.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Goog is the latter. but I feel bad beating up on them lately, especially after the moto thing and their last quarterly report. desktop revenue down 9% even though clicks are up 26%...
For Google's case in particular, I also have to look at the services they've provided:
Since these are provided free to everybody, isn't this a tangible public service? Sure, Google's users are the product, but if one considers these as analogous to services provided under a government's mandate to use their taxes to provide for the general welfare, why shouldn't Google get a special tax break? It sure beats the return on the multiple $1E9's spent beating the crap out of some foreign country.
Let them eat cake...
Very true.
France, join the club: Apple, Google facing tax crackdown
Sure, but Google (and others) are obviously trying to pass off work done in France (or other EU countries) as work done in Ireland, while the Ireland office obviously has very few staff and cannot possibly do all the work they are purported to be doing. This is a very obvious tax fraud and it is quite amazing that these mega corps think that they will get away with it forever. They should get audited and double taxed. Simple as that.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
"Le Google." What do they call Bing?
I don't know. I didn't use Microsoft.
FTFY.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
The problem is the Ireland tax loophole. It's abused by Google, Apple, Microsoft and many other.
Politician need to fix it... because the same happen in Belgium, Germany, ...
For much of the 20th century, the United States has had >70% tax on the wealthiest as well, with at some point >90%. Apparently, that did not seems to hurt the US.
Not that various American ultra-rich folks are calling for higher taxes on the wealthy too. Instead, they get tax breaks.
A few rich people being a bit upset that their income from labor gets taxed heavily, which they don't feel because the vast bulk of their income comes from investment, won't hurt them. It's the desire to spend spend spend that really gets Hollande. Actual socialists do more harm than good.
Do we need references to claim that austerity never works? Do we have examples where it was a success?
My understanding of the phenomenon is that common people understand it as a wise measure they adopt when they have budget problems: less expenses, more income. But that thinking miss the point that a state is not an individual, and has several special capabilities which can help here: creating money, increasing income, and refusing to pay the debt without seeing its belongings seized.
But what about the politicians that enforce austerity and the media that support it? They are economically educated, they know what they are doing/supporting will only make their People poorer.
Actually, it really appears that Google was blatantly NOT following the law.
Apple sells an iPhone and says X% of the value of it is for patents to be paid to an Irish company [or something like that], which is completely legal, even if it is also completely arbitrary [as Apple owns said patents] so they basically shift most profits out of the country. Everybody and their dog does this, Apple just headlines this because they are a relatively new company [vs say, petroleum companies] and they make highest amount of profit [or thereabouts] worldwide.
Google has a large office of employee's in France, that were involved with negotiating and signing advertising contracts with french companies, then claiming those contracts were actually signed IN IRELAND. This is the part that the tax collectors are taking issue with. To be legal and not have to pay taxes in France for those contracts, Google would basically have to close their french offices and get everyone to directly deal with their Irish division.
And I believe I saw a similar story about the UK also investigating Google doing this in the UK as well. And I'm sure all the other tax collection agencies in the EU have perked up their ears and started taking a look at this...
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
The difference is that in Australia a gift of an expensive bottle of wine to the right person will make the tax problems go away.
Google can try to register as a charity like all the others providing services and see how far it gets.
What do personal tax rates have to do with a corporation paying corporate taxes? There are no "75%" corporate taxes in France?
Technically true, and my point wasn't to say that corporations pay a 75% tax, rather my aim was to point out the biggest absurdity in their tax system in order to emphasize how bad it is. It is quite so bad that in fact that they are reversing course, which again I wanted to emphasize. As far as the 75% tax itself...the 75% figure cannot be taxed to individuals directly; I don't know exactly why, but apparently it's against their higher laws (constitution? I honestly don't know enough about French law.) What I do know is that it comes in the form of a payroll tax. The original law was written so that it was a regular personal income tax, but it was shot down in their court system, so it had to be rewritten to its current form, and the tax is paid before they even receive the money, or something to that effect.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
"The government redrafted a proposed bill to levy a temporary 75% tax on earnings over 1 million Euros."
-- on earnings over 1 million Euros --
Personally I don't see the problem to contribute more to society if you earn that much money.
Privacy is terrorism.
TFA says that the French government thinks they are not following the laws. It's a somewhat technical disagreement but as far as the French government is concerned the should have paid that money.
As it happens the EU is trying to sort this out. The proposal is for companies to pay corporation tax based on the percentage of business they do in each country. If 5% of Google's business is in France with French companies then they pay French corporation tax on 5% of their global profits. Doesn't matter where they try to hide them, the bill is the same.
Of course some countries, most notably the UK, are against this because they like being tax havens.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The US had a top marginal tax of 90% during it richest times of the last century. Why does it bother you so?
There are so many problems with this, where to begin?
Firstly, this is not some spontaneous action by a bunch of bottom rung tax collectors. Politicians in France got elected by promising things the country could not afford and have been desperately searching for things they can tax to raise revenue, or at least be seen to be doing something. Hence 75% tax on the rich, and so on. Wealthy non-French tech companies are of course a juicy target so top politicians in France have been threatening Google with retroactive tax "re-evaluations" for some time. This is 100% a politically motivated action, what's more, it directly contradicts EU law which France signed up for. It's not at all clear that the EU courts would let such an action stand.
But secondly, and more problematically, you are trying to argue that a contract is not signed with the people it's signed with. There's a very simple way to find out who a contract was actually made with - look at who signed it. If these contracts were signed by an Irish company, they're with a company in Ireland and it doesn't matter what language they're written in (seriously, who comes up with this crap, does the French government expect to tax transactions in Canada now?).
Countries that have a beef with salespeople promoting products that are actually sold elsewhere, will either have to get real, or start cracking down on any kind of affiliate network or company that has a mobile salesforce at all. Attempting to redefine where revenue accrues according the job titles of people who worked on the sale is a losing proposition and can never work - either companies will rename the people who are doing the selling to avoid ad-hoc rules, or they'll just increase the independence of the subsidiaries so they qualify as independent affiliates etc, or if governments get really draconian they'll go to entirely online selling - not exactly a hard thing for a company like Google. There's no way to make this kind of thing stick, which is why EU law does not work that way.
No, what they're doing is entirely legal, though whether they choose to fight this in the courts is an open question. But does France really want Google to shut up shop and leave? The entire point of the EU that France is so enthusiastic about is the common single market, which means anyone in it can sell to anyone from anywhere inside it. If France starts trying to undermine that system they're signing up for a whole world of pain far beyond any tax they could gain from Google.
the wealthiest has resulted in a lot of them just flat out leaving that country.
Which is why tax laws need a lot more international corporations.
Right now, the rich and the mega-corporations are turning countries into enemies that fight each other over "competitive" tax rates, when they should be allies fighting the tax evaders with criminal prosecutions.
It's just another trick to make you and me pay indirect subsidies to the rich. Even if you're anti-government, you can't deny a simple truth: Every $ that some rich dude or corporations evades in tax payment has to be paid by the rest of us instead.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I have no idea where you are getting that idea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... there is a 60% tax on inheritance but only if you are a remote relative. There are high income tax on very high income (41% top), and there is a very low tax on wealth (around a 1% if you are millionaire , and atround 2% if youa re over 10* millionaire). As for the article it does not speak at all about a 75% tax. As for the article, it was really written by an american "France is famous for its generous social benefits, somewhat relaxed work ethic" there are country (like germany, Sweden) which have as generous and as relaxed "work ethic". In fact I suspect the usage of the word "ethic" here as being american prejudice only.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
I agree, ask France to send me a billion please.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
In some countries, maybe there's some blame to be had for escaping taxes...but France is a whole other argument. I mean shit, 75% tax on the wealthiest has resulted in a lot of them just flat out leaving that country.
The top French income tax rate (on income over EUR 151,200) us 45%.
encouraging genocide of anglophones in Rwanada
Aaaand, the prize for the weirdest summary of the Rwandan genocide goes to the AC over there.
Anglophones? Seriously?
No problem, just buy 1/50 of french public debt and you will have your billion every year.
Everett Dirksen, is that you?
Google is still Google. It's not like we say The Google.
You think France cares if Google operates there? Its not like it is the only search engine or e-mail service around you know.
As for tax evasion of rich people there is a longstanding tradition of changing residence to Monaco to avoid paying income tax in France.
In the short term(a couple of years like what the E.U. has been going through so far)? Probably not.
Over decades? Absolutely.
Gross and unsustainable overspending over the long term is a fantastic way to either default on debt, end up having to hyperinflate it away, or dramatically bleed the country's wealth out of said country. Those are not good things.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Can u elaborate on why Bazza was f'ed up by that bottle. I'm interested if there is more to it I'm unaware of. Merci beaucoup.
Sorry wrong...
That same thing happens in the US all the time. A refinancing of a house in Maryland doen't take place in Maryland... The contracts are sent to a company in Virgina... but they don't sign either, ... The company in Virginia sends the contracts to a company in Delaware for signing...
Because Virginia has lower corporate taxes for processing (nothing is sold, or contracted), and Delaware has the lowest taxes for charges on signed contracts.
This is not how the world works in the 21st century anymore. Of course, Google does have offices in France, but don't assume they coudn't just close them. The internet is a funny thing, it doesn't give a crap about arbitrary geographic borders. I provided you with content: my reply to your post, do I now "operate" in your country?
You forgot Microsoft who are real artists in this sport
You confuse taxes on individuals and taxes on companies, BTW the US top tax rate was very close to this until you elected a movie cowboy, I guess all the rich people where fleeing the US in the 60s 70s and early 80s ....
The main reason BTW the government is trying to increase personal taxes is just because international (including very french ones) companies actually manage not to pay any taxes...
In reality there are two issues
the first one is that the large US companies know that at some point they'll be able to get a tax holliday to rapatriate the cash they fleeced from foreign countries and stored in some tax haven. ... it's "kind of legal" but ...
In theory you have to pay taxes somewhere overly simplifying the issues it means you pay where you are or where your customers are, but if you can hide the money from your customers tax authorities and then wait until your own tax authorities tells you fine, bring the cash we'll make you a discount
The other issue is that in constructing the European Union we agreed to have an open market but did not (out ouf misguided nationalism) give up national taxing rights...
So a small country is happy to tax a large company for all the business they do in Europe at a discounted rate, and they can afford it because they have smaller needs for their infrastructure.
But it is not a long term sustainable system.
In the specific case of Google the tax office is doing what they should have done a very long time ago to Microsoft, Apple, HP, .... ... " you have "abroad" ...
it is to say: ok the system is broken and you "can" steal the revenu from your french operation to move it to some place where the tax are lower, BUT you have to do it correctly and charge a realistic amount of money for what ever "management services, IP transfert, branding cost, sales operation,
if not you are cheating
TFA says that the French government thinks they are not following the laws.
But which part of the French government? The implication is very different depending on whether we're talking about the legislative authorities, the tax collection authorities, or someone's PR department.
Of course some countries, most notably the UK, are against this because they like being tax havens.
I think you're confusing the UK with Ireland. Large international businesses are playing much the same games to avoid paying corporation tax in the UK as they are in France.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Sure current situation is not good, but you have to look at its source.
Between 1945 and 1973, France's state deficit is covered by debt owned by nationals, and money creation by the Banque de France. The debt remain low despite an important public spending.
After 1973, money must be borrowed on international markets. The debt increases since that time, and no public spending reduction managed to fix that. And ironically, the whole debt today is roughly the sum of debt interests since 1973.
There's a bit of corruption being uncovered in the ruling party in Australia this week. Turns out you can get a lot of access during a tendering process for a gift valued at $3000. It's a bargain since getting a Mayor to listen cost $5000.
The US does not have an anti-avoidance clause in the sense you mean. The US has a rule which says that you cannot arrange your affairs on paper as to avoid taxes, while the reality is different.
The French are nearly bankrupt. Wonder why.
Seriously? You think the 5th largest economy in the world, with a debt/gdp ratio of 94% (cf EU average 93% USA, 101%, Japan 223%,) is "nearly bankrupt"?
Fuck France!
Just leave these cowardly idiots alone without access to Google services.
They would soon regret their attacks and stupid leftist laws.
You seme to have a shaky idea of how all this "making money" thing works.
Hint: you don't refuse to do business in a country that is the 5th largest economy in the world just because you think they are "cowards".
(And, by the way, it's pretty odd to describe people you think are attacking you as "cowards").
Then everything being sold in the EU now magically happens in Ireland. Even though the store is in France, the customer is in France, the salesperson is employed in France and the product is France, they just declare the transaction happens in Ireland. And the same in Germany and the UK and Spain.
And it's not just France, the UK is also looking at this exact same issue with Google. And it wouldn't surprise me if the rest of the EU was also looking at it.
It sounds like Google will basically have to do what Tesla is doing in various states. Tesla has a showroom, with a car or two, and some people to explain things about the car, but when they actually want to buy the car, the people go "Here, you need to go to this web site, and buy it through the web site."
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
There is a difference between state boundaries and international boundaries, and completely different laws apply.
In this case, there would be various international treaties France has signed and enacted between France and Ireland [and then enacted by their national gov't], France, Ireland and the EU [and then enacted by their national gov't], and French law.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
...successful companies dodge their taxes is on par with the observation that successful squirrels dodge cars. A company that stands in place and pays out whatever money their local government demands is lacking in some fundamental qualities that make a business successful. If they're dumb enough to fire their accountant and hand over billions of dollars, because patriotism, they're probably not making good business decisions in a ton of other areas as well.
Except it does not work for French citizens : aggreements between Monaco and France were signed to explicitely forbid it...
I am not Remy Mouton, unfortunately: http://remy.mouton.free.fr/art/
This isn't a "mobile work force". Google isn't sending people from Ireland to get contracts in France. That would probably be legal.
Google has hired a bunch of people in France, using their subsidiary in France, who are signing contracts with French companies, but claiming that they are actually being signed in Ireland. I believe the legal issue is that there is no nexus for the transaction happening in Ireland.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Sorry, but that 90% figure is sensationalist and just another way to say "look, we're getting screwed by the 1% more than we used to! Torches and pitchforks now!" and ultimately isn't useful. Why? Because practically nobody ever paid 90%, and furthermore the rich paid less of a burden then than they do today. Why? The tax system worked a lot differently then. It was the top marginal rate on an income above $300,000 for single, $400,000 for married. In order to effectively be paying 90%, they had to make over $2 million per year. Keep in mind that that kind of money was practically unheard of during that time.
Even if you adjust for inflation, you'll find less people making that amount then than there are today, mainly because all economies were much smaller, there was less money to be made, and overall there was much less wealth that even existed to begin with (and yes, the amount of "wealth" does increase as economies grow, which means there's more to go around.)
Bottom line: Today the rich DO pay a higher portion of taxes than they did then, even when adjusted for inflation. I'll let an investment broker do the explaining here:
In 1958, approximately two million filers (4.4% of all taxpayers) earned the $12,000 or more for married couples needed to face marginal rates as high as 30%. These Americans paid about 35% of all income taxes. And now? In 2010, 3.9 million taxpayers (2.75% of all taxpayers) were subjected to rates that were 33% or higher. These Americans—many of whom would hardly call themselves wealthy—reported an adjusted gross income of $209,000 or higher, and they paid 49.7% of all income taxes.
In contrast, the share of taxes paid by the bottom two-thirds of taxpayers has fallen dramatically over the same period. In 1958, these Americans accounted for 41.3% of adjusted gross income and paid 29% of all federal taxes. By 2010, their share of adjusted gross income had fallen to 22.5%. But their share of taxes paid fell far more dramatically—to 6.7%. The 77% decline represents the single biggest difference in the way the tax burden is shared in this country since the late 1950s.
http://online.wsj.com/news/art...
So you see, even though the top marginal rate was higher back then, the rich paid LESS taxes than they do today. So stop with this Michael Moore bullshit (sorry, just that 90% figure gets thrown around so often, but it doesn't mean what the typical person thinks it would mean; as is typical in Michael Moore fashion.)
Have a nice day.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
There is a certain current of Americans who hate France and all things related to French culture (I know, it's ironic, but stick with me...). Usually they tend to be tea party or hard core conservative types.
I'm none of the above. My thoughts about France are probably the same as the typical British person's are (if you're looking for a comparison, anyways.)
I'm also fairly certain that the French hate Americans more than I hate the French.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
No, the UK likes being a tax haven as well. Here it is a little more complicated than Ireland. You have to take the head of HMRC to dinner and come to a gentlemen's agreement that you aren't going to pay, and little is done to enforce it. The government is generally speaking against clamping down hard to legal-but-immoral tax avoidance because it thinks companies will move outside the UK if it does.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
If 5% of Google's business is in France with French companies then they pay French corporation tax on 5% of their global profits. Doesn't matter where they try to hide them, the bill is the same.
Wouldn't they just organize so that profits all accrue to a company that doesn't do business in France, thus giving Google 0 global profits? Isn't that what most global companies already do w/r/t to the US and the EU?
You really want to know why Americans hate so much the French ? By the way it's the same reason the French hate so much the Americans. Because deep deep down where the sun doesn't shine, France and the US of A are the 2 sides of the same coin.
Because both countries have folks professing to hate the other country's culture while spending $$$ on the products of that country's culture?
Burger King went out of business in France a long time ago.
Looks like they are trying again, with a total of 2 (two) restaurants nationwide.
-- Julien Pierre http://www.madbrain.com/blog
Google should just get the hell out of France.I can't imagine its profitable to put up with the French government bullshit. Besides, French citizens could still use Google services. No way would the French government be able to figure out how to block them.
Right, because who needs firefighters, hospitals, schools, streets, garbage collection, sewers and all the other pointless things that government handles that just happen to cost money.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
What do personal tax rates have to do with a corporation paying corporate taxes? There are no "75%" corporate taxes in France?
No, there is not. Do not believe anything François Hollande says.
interesting. Will listen to AJ's n RH's commentary on it.
You really want to know why Americans hate so much the French ? By the way it's the same reason the French hate so much the Americans. Because deep deep down where the sun doesn't shine, France and the US of A are the 2 sides of the same coin. Much more so than the US and the UK. Ironic isn't ?
From what I could figure out in trying to track down the "French are surrender monkeys" trope, hatred of the French pretty much all goes back to post WW2 DeGaulle government. France pulls out of NATO. States that the USSR is going to win the cold war. Generally insults England at every chance by saying that all their achievments were given to them by the US. Annexes Algeria and calls it France while others are trying to end the colonial era. Starts nuclear testing while even the US and USSR and agreeing to limit it. This was all pretty much done because France wanted to still be considered a superpower and was willing to piss people off to try and prove it. Pretty much what Russia is doing now.