Slashdot Mirror
Google Settles Decade-Long Tax Dispute In UK (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Alphabet, Inc., parent company to Google, has agreed to pay $185 million to settle UK taxes going back to 2005. The company has also agreed to adopt a new approach to taxes in the UK going forward. While this is a sizeable figure, many believe it is too little, and constitutes a sweetheart deal between the government and Google. Matt Brittin, the President of EMEA Business and Operations for Google, was a participant in a televised hearing today in which UK lawmakers questioned the $185 million settlement. He stated, "We find ourselves in the position where we are paying the tax that the tax authorities told us to pay."
Eskimo's Relief
Old news
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
The man can't give a straight answer to any simple question.
can expect crawl-up-your-arse audits for the next lifetime. 2.5% tax is a fucking insult, compounded by the chancellor getting free fucking tickets to the Superbowl paid for by... FUCKING GOOGLE!
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
"We find ourselves in the position where we are paying the tax that the tax authorities told us to pay."
Like (majority of) the rest of us. And you still pay fucking bread crumbs. Fuck you!
You pay the tax that you're told to pay? Wow. Just like those pesky little people out there, right?
Just how much of an asshole do you have to be to get to that kind of attitude?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Best case scenario is you avoid a shitload of taxes. Worst case scenario is that you negotiate your tax bill down after getting caught and still wind up paying less in taxes than you would've if you adhered to the tax regs to begin with. Seems like a win-win to me.
Tax avoidance is legal by definition. Why would anybody pay more then they were legally required? When millions are involved, it's worth hiring shysters. Duh.
You are thinking of 'Tax evasion'.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The line between tax avoidance and evasion is exceedingly thin for the aggressive tax strategies these companies employ. I was being generous by using the term avoidance.
Corporations rule the world. The TPP showed us that. Governments have been reduced to middle men which lick some of the cream off the top as they pass them your milkshake.
The financial term for what Google and its big business buddies are doing is called a double irish sandwich, a dutch sandwich, or a shit sandwich. http://www.abc.net.au/insidebu... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki...
It's your own fault for electing the same party politicians who let them do this again, and again, and again. So eat that shit sandwich, taxpayer. You deserve it. Too bad the rest of us have to keep eating what you keep ordering too, you asshole.
If there is room for shysters to argue about it, it's avoidance until declared otherwise by a court.
'Grey Area' is one of the shyster class's most powerful spells.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
They made more in interest in that time period to cover the "taxes" and still come out billions ahead.
185 million USD is small given Google benefits. Perhaps they spent more in attorney and lobbyist fees to get that result!
sooner or later they win, because they have unlimited money and can just wear everybody else down. Here in the states the corps are salivating over Obama exiting the White House so they can bring back all those profits tax free without contributing a cent to the civilization that made it all possible. They win, and we all lose (schools, health care, food banks, etc).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
In almost all countries, the difference between the two is what the revenue department says it is.
Unless you are a multinational that can fight it in court.
If they were a private individual or a small business the penalties would dwarf the actual tax bill...
One law for one....
I want to pay tax not on my income but my profits because at the end of the month, I don't have any.
Why would anybody pay more then they were legally required?
Because most people have some degree of moral backbone and understand that the letter of the law is not the same as morals.
Most people don't take advantage of tax loopholes. Most people just have tax deducted from salary in the completely normal way and pay no more thought to it. Some people fill in a tax return and take advantage of a few rebates here and there if applicable[*]. Now, some people screw around with offshore shell corporations to reduce their taxes. That's an option open to many people but most simply don't bother.
So yeah, most people probably pay more tat than they're legally required because the combination of hassle and the skeezy feeling that you're being a bad person when you find some cheat to lower your taxes just is not worth it.
[*] Please don't try to insult my intelligence by claiming that rebates (which are intended by the government and there to promote certain kinds of behaviour) are equivalent to loopholes which are by definition unintended.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
... chasing small business owners for a few hundred pounds each. This is insane - they have ONE company which should really be paying billions of pounds in taxes, yet they let them off and then waste millions of pounds of OUR money, paying the tax office to hound small businesses for relatively tiny amounts of money. Methinks somebody has been taking bribes...
Yup, Google's new motto is to be "we're pure evil".
About 2 quid per head. Total game changer, that.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I'm a UK citizen who runs a small business and I've always paid my taxes. Not any more.
This year it looks like my business has wound down significantly. Revenues are about 2/3 of what they were last year. Next year will be more of the same. Of course this isn't really the case it's just that I'm now not declaring the majority of cash jobs. I'm also encouraging people to always pay cash where possible.
If big corporations aren't required to pay tax then neither am I. I've tried petitioning my MPs to do something but they do nothing. So the only decent response is to no longer play the game.
Evasion is more those people that straight up kill off any tax payable, and up to a threshold based on their maximum profits. (which will vary depending on who you ask)
Avoidance is just those that live above those lines comfortably but still lower their tax considerably.
But you are right in that it is still fairly muddy even then. The former threshold as I mentioned can vary wildly as an example.
Many innocent people regularly get audited out the ass for totally legit investments similar to the schemes used by these companies, which are pretty well known by anyone that follows the issues.
It's fairly trivial to do and only really requires a basic understanding of the loopholes and an initial investment accessible by anyone in the middle-class at the least since the initial investment requires property on those tax havens, even if it is just a basic apartment room.
More needs to be done with multi-national tax agreements between countries.
A lower tax payable based on the X countries they have actual physical operations, and not just a house with nothing in it besides a phone and some guy paid to answer it.
It won't happen though. Not any time soon.
When did things go from paying taxes being a way to keep the government from arresting you to it being immoral to find a way to avoid arrest and taxes at the same time?
"We find ourselves in the position where we are paying the tax that the tax authorities told us to pay."
Really? I'm in the exact same position, how cute.
It has been noticed that since this sweetheart deal, typing "Conservatives are" into google doesn't throw up any suggested searches (contrast with those suggested for "Labour are" and "Libdems are"). Correlation is not causation of course, could just be a happy coincidence.
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
What kind of crazy definition of 'loophole' are you using?
Loophole is a pejorative for a deduction/credit you don't like. That is all.
You are morally required to 'starve the beast'. Even if you lose money on taking the deduction, cost of preparation etc, morally you should still take it.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Loophole is a pejorative for a deduction/credit you don't like. That is all.
Jesus do you even know what loophole means? The govrnment does not provide deductions then complain when people use them. A loophole is an unintended consequence of tax law, like the double Irish.
Your statements is literally trying to change the meaning of commonly used phrases.
You are morally required to 'starve the beast'.
No you aren't.
Even if you lose money on taking the deduction, cost of preparation etc, morally you should still take it.
Deductions aren't loopholes. The words mean different things. Go read a dictionary before you make a bigger fool of yourself.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
The reason you live in a nice safe developed nation is because you have a powerful government that can defend that nation and provide services that mean you're unlikely to starve to death or to die of a preventable disease amongst many other services that you take for granted. Is our system perfect? Nowhere near. Would it be better if we had to get those services from the private sector? No because large numbers of us would be excluded from getting those services due to cost.
Bullshit. Those 'loopholes' were all passed deliberately.
In some cases smart people use the loopholes for purposes other then the social engineering they were originally intended for (unintended consequences). But the 'loophole' is a deduction/credit that was DELIBERATELY PUT INTO LAW.
You are using your own private definition of 'loophole'. All deductions are 'loopholes' to someone who doesn't like them.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
We keep the useful 10% of government and fire the dead weight. You are on crack if you believe what you just wrote.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
It's all sitting in banks doing nothing. World Poverty has fallen not due to investment but due to massive improvements in food growing & distribution tech... most of which was funded the gov't... and by laws and subsidies that keep food prices down.. again gov't. Venezuela was doing just fine thank you until the Saudi's decided to dump oil on the market. They're struggling like every oil nation now. They're struggle is a little more obvious because unlike the Suadis they don't just abondon their lower class at the first sign of trouble.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Bullshit. Those 'loopholes' were all passed deliberately.
OK, I understand the problem now: you're a complete idiot. Glad we cleared that up.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
So you think these loopholes magiced their way into the code?
You think there is no logic to the way that overseas revenue and costs are allocated?
Study the subject, and propose a better system or shut the fuck up. These laws have been hashed out over decades by people much smarter than you and mostly work.
You'r just pissed that government power is checked by the ability of people and business to vote with their feet. Tough shit. That is a _good_ check on government revenue grabs.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'