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Microsoft Offers Washington a Bargain: More State Taxes, For More Education
reifman writes: The Washington State Legislature and its budget is a complete mess this year but there's been an unusual bright spot which may quiet the protesters Slashdot reported earlier: Microsoft has volunteered for an exclusive $28 million annual tax — as long as the state funds a number of computer science degree programs. Visions of these faded after the 2008 recession when the legislature cut $4 billion from K-12 and higher education spending in part to cover the coming legalization and amnesty for Microsoft's Nevada tax dodge (students' tuitions only increased 58.6 percent.) With Microsoft's voluntary tax, the company will have fully repaid its $8.75 billion tax dodge by 2327, just 312 years from now.
Cisco for a long time inserted itself in schools by providing major discounts. They figured that if you train people to use and love Cisco, they will grow up buying Cisco. It's the common case of buy what you know. I did it, you did it and well all do it again.
The only problem with your plan is that failure to pay taxes is criminal not civil. For all your strong words, when you are looking at a decade in jail you will settle just like everyone else does.
And if you are famous or will get newspaper articles written about your prediciment you will still go to jail, just ask Wesley Snipes. He followed the advice of one of those tax crackpots and he went to jail for 3 years, even after buckling under to the government and paying back everything he owed plus the interest and penalties. The guy that convinced him to do it? 17 Years in jail. The IRS has their own courts and you are guilty in those courts unless you can prove otherwise.
Messing with the IRS is very foolish.
I assure you that I am paying a FAR larger portion of my income in taxes than Microsoft
Yes, you are paying a far larger portion than ANY company. But do you know why? Because no company has ever paid a penny of "their own" income in taxes. Their taxes are baked into their prices. You pay their taxes for them. Estimated taxes are part of the structure determining price: 1: Cost of materials 2: Cost of labor 3: Cost of capital 4: Cost of taxes 5: Cost of profit (the company's own income) 6: Cost of selling 7 - N: etc.
Saying companies ought to pay more in income tax is the same as saying you wished they charged more for their products and services. Income taxes at all levels are really just paid by the last level that can't pass it on to a customer downstream.