Slashdot Mirror
Protesters Blockade Microsoft's Seattle Headquarters Over Tax Breaks
reifman (786887) writes "A thousand unionized healthcare workers protested outside Microsoft's Seattle offices over its Nevada tax dodge on Friday. Microsoft shareholders have pocketed more than $5.34 billion in tax savings as Washington State social services and schools have taken huge cuts. In a hearing Wednesday, the Supreme Court suggested it may hold the Legislature in contempt and order it to repeal all tax breaks to restore proper funding to K-12 schools and universities." I suspect Microsoft's lawyers are careful to engage in legal tax avoidance rather than illegal tax evasion. Geekwire notes "The South Lake Union satellite facility is not a major office for Microsoft, compared to its presence in Redmond. It’s not clear why the workers didn’t protest at Microsoft headquarters."
I suspect they protested at S. Lake Union because that is very close to downtown Seattle and an extremely visible location. Microsoft Campus in Redmond is in the in a much more suburban atmosphere, it would be much less of a visible protest there.
I don't get this at all?
If a business has avoided paying some taxes *legally* and citizens are angry about it? The proper channel to go through is protesting the government that allowed it.
Any "for profit" business has the responsibility to maximize profits for the sake of its continued existence and growth, and as a duty to its stockholders if it was publicly held. Therefore, it would be irresponsible of it NOT to take advantage of legal tax loopholes or tactics to minimize costs.
It sounds like some people have the idea that they can "shame" businesses into volunteering to pay more tax than they're legally required to pay. I'm not saying that might not have a small measure of success in some situations -- but you'd probably achieve similar results by just randomly picketing ANY profitable business and demanding they give more to charity, or pay more of their profits to improve the local area, or ??
The crux of the problem here is the way the laws are written, so only your legislators can correct it.
People don't bootstrap their earning potential or marketable skills from nothing, nor could they continue to prosper without social cooperation made possible by tax-supported infrastructure and institutions. If you want to be a completely unencumbered individual, find a deserted island.
I suspect they protested at S. Lake Union because that is very close to downtown Seattle and an extremely visible location.
You have that right on the money.
This year at WWDC there were Apple tax protestors out front before the keynote with the classic protestor drum circle and some kind of chant.
Well the moment the cameras outside are gone? So are they. I had some respect for them before that for at least making a stand, even if I disagree with the position. But they weren't making a stand - they were making a TV show.
Given the behavior it's hard to believe they were not all actors of one form or another. It certainly didn't seem like anyone had the kind of protesting spirit that really meant anything when they couldn't be arsed to protest longer than a few hours. I have to wonder if the Microsoft protest is of the same spiritless form.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So it's rational to give large companies tax breaks to keep them in your city as a way to keep your economy strong. It may seem unfair, but all these cities and states have done enough research to conclude that doing tax favors for these big companies is worth more than taxing them at regular rates and losing the employment. So it's neither illegal or irrational on the part of the government or the corporations.
It doesn't seem unfair, it is unfair.
The big companies get tax breaks. The politicians get kickbacks, lobbying, and stay in office. The regular citizens pay higher taxes to make up for the company and the politician screwing them.
Microsoft employs >40K employees in the Seattle Metro area, while the other 3.6M residents (literally the 99%) get screwed.
So? Apple developers don't care, customers may care. Protesting is about two things, PR and disruption.
Lots of disruption cases are illegal especially in a public setting so disruption is typically reserved for private cases but then how can you be disruptive if you don't have access to the private premises? Disruptive protests are normally done by employees internally but they aren't going to complain about the tax breaks their employer received.
In cases like this the protest is exclusively a PR campaign to raise awareness. Disruption will likely end them in jail, fined, or worse still as in the cases of the Google Buses people may not sympathise due to a misdirected attack.
What they did here was get their face on TV. It's about the best form of public protest you can have. Who cares about a few thousand developers when you have the evening news and media sites picking up the story? In some cases getting your face on TV is the end game and there really is no point it wasting your time beyond that.