Could this be why Google calendar is down? Is Google going Galt? :)
What do you mean by that? Is Google going to pay all the "content" producing Galts that it profits off (and has never paid)?
Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
81–90 of 368 posts
Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
#82I heard someone related to the Paris office raid comment when that happened. She was saying that multinational corporations always say that their organization and tax schemes are legal but that in reality it's so complex and spread in multiple countries that nobody really knows for sure and so it's only legal by default.
Isn't that true for almost everything though? The laws are so complex that no normal citizen can understand them. Even lawyers seem to disagree now and then.
Tax law is a math problem. Google is a company run by math nerds. Of course they are going to solve for X.
Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
#83I heard someone related to the Paris office raid comment when that happened. She was saying that multinational corporations always say that their organization and tax schemes are legal but that in reality it's so complex and spread in multiple countries that nobody really knows for sure and so it's only legal by default.
> so it's only legal by default.
The idea that bureaucrats can make enough laws that we know exactly what action ever taken in the future is "illegal or not" is pure Orwellian.
Most things in life are legal by default. This is no different.
Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
#84This reminds me of Zooloander smashing the iMac on the ground trying to find file/folders
Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
#85This reminds me of Zooloander smashing the iMac on the ground trying to find file/folders
Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
"should be illegal" means it is not. What exactly is your point? Shaming debtors of the country is not ok?
Well, I suppose anyone who is a debtor to the IRS is a criminal . In The Netherlands it isn't legal to use the full name of a criminal in any publication, so it could be that the EU is a bit different in the way it treats criminals.
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Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
#87Another PR stunt of the minister, Montoro. No more than that. He also makes public a lost of debtors to the IRS (which should be illegal but he gets away with anything). Edit: Spaniard here.
"should be illegal" means it is not. What exactly is your point? Shaming debtors of the country is not ok?
Shaming them is not legal because it is defamation and the authority (Montoro) is obliged to denounce it, not to make it public. Let the media make whatever is public, public, but not the minister.
He has, several times, menaced the media (for example, "El Mundo", to "speak out about you")...
I find that dirty.
Edit: And a corruption of justice (presumption of innocence even for fiscal deeds).
(See comments above): he is required by Law (since 2003) to make that list public. However he (coincidentally) started publishing it last year (election year...). From my point of view, this is pathetic.
Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How can this still be possible? Shouldn't all tax legislation be such that if you break the spirit of it by having internal transfers (royalties, fees, interest) to a low-tax area, then you are still taxed based on the business that you had in the country in question, and based on the net sum (i.e. zero). How would that even work? The costs are actually costs. Imagine it was actually a dozen different companies. On…
> Which is fine, but isn't an income tax and isn't a tax on Google. It kind of is, though, isn't it? The online ad market is theoretically super efficient - if the market clearing price for an ad is $1, and then you add a 10% sales tax, it no longer makes sense to bid / pay $1 for that ad, knowing that you will be out of pocket $1.10. Instead you would bid about 90-91 cents, knowing that it would get marked up to $1…
You forget that european VAT is cancelled with businesses upstream, that is, you can deduct the VAT charged to consumers with the VAT of your purchases so you only owe the net amount. Also there is no unified european tax rate, there are some tax havens inside the EU.
Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
#89I would expect google to keep all financial documents inside Google Drive. In doing so, I wonder what is left in the office for the Spanish authorities to find in a raid? (Google is ruthlessly paperless internally.)
I'm not sure the solution to google being perceived by states as running tax laundering schemes is to adopt anti-investigation measures.
Re: Spanish authorities raid Google offices over tax
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
"should be illegal" means it is not. What exactly is your point? Shaming debtors of the country is not ok?
Well, I suppose anyone who is a debtor to the IRS is a criminal . In The Netherlands it isn't legal to use the full name of a criminal in any publication, so it could be that the EU is a bit different in the way it treats criminals.
You are innocent until a judge declares you are not. Even in tax evasion.
Edit: sorry, I misunderstood your comment...