Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

businessweek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 292 posts

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#281

Post by rmc »

patrickk wrote: post #223
borism wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But WHY did Irish banks invest more in property than everyone else?

Irish banks didn't "invest" in property as such, they just lent spectacular amounts of money to both mortgage applicants and property developers. The result was a huge property bubble. Anglo Irish Bank is the most notorious of all the banks, because it financed property developers particularly and got itself into a huge mess and has to be bailed out by the government, or the country's economy will collapse (according…

> At the peak of the bubble, something like one-in-seven people were employed by the construction industry, either directly or indirectly

Actually according to the CSO (http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/constructio...) in 2007 13.5% of the working population were employed in the construction sector. That's almost 1 in 7 people directly employed in construction.

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#282

Post by [deleted] »

codexon wrote: post #244
andreyf wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's curious that you mention college freshmen because GMail saves Universities boatloads of money in infrastructure costs.

I think it's curious that you would try and argue this. Before Google sold gmail to colleges, my college and many others used squirrelmail and pine which was more than adequate. Any sizable college that had an IT department that could support email anyway.

[deleted]

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#283

Post by noglorp »

codexon wrote: post #247
danenania wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From an economic perspective, that's an argument in favor of Google. When private companies miscalculate or mismanage, their products and investments don't make profits and fail, thus freeing up resources for better uses. When government programs are poorly run, they go over budget and often use that as a justification for asking for MORE money. There is no incentive to be efficient or diligent when someone else foot…

You make it sound like no government program has ever been cut or removed. You also make it sound like private companies can do no wrong, and that customers always act in their best interest like rational agents. This is a fallacy learned in every ECON 101 class. Millions, even billions of dollars are siphoned off in people buying useless products like Acai Berry or junk bonds labled as AAA that do nothing for societ…

Hey now, just because anti-oxidants aren't magical doesn't mean they aren't freakin anti-oxidants!

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#284

Post by known »

zooey wrote: post #229
known wrote: post #181

Big companies think & act in terms of priorities and not what is right or wrong .

Companies are about money. Countries are about people. Taxes build services that are used by people. "Web Services" doesn't count too much as a service. I would live without google search no matter what people say. But what about hospital, street, public transportation, cheap houses for poor people, and on and on and on...our society is based on taxes. The reason why people have to pay taxes is to build a better soci…

Americans paid 92% income tax in 1950s.

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#285

Post by kragen »

marbletiles wrote: post #250
kragen wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're going to be strictly factual about it, Google is actually spending money on cancer research and spaceships; http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/oncampus/08/10/google.html describes one of a number of grants that are going to researchers on, among other things, cancer; Larry Brilliant himself suffered from thyroid cancer. Also, Google bought SpaceShipOne, which is now on display at the Googleplex. Presumably Scal…

Sorry, that wasn't really the intention of my example, which was to show the range of government spending. Ultimately, though, it boils down to this: Google isn't doing anything with this money, except earning less than 1% interest on it. Google can afford to pay taxes in the countries in which it operates. That it does not, while obviously legally defensible, reflects poorly on the other work it does. Public plumbin…

I don't know why you think paying taxes is morally commendable. So far Google hasn't, as far as I know, invaded any countries or funded any coups.

$2.6 billion per year is about US$9 per person. Another point of comparison, if you're worried about conservation of fresh water, is that the Mississippi River discharges 110 trillion gallons of fresh water per year into the Gulf of Mexico, where it turns brackish. So the plumbing doesn't sound like a disastrous problem to me, particularly compared with problems like 1% of the adult US population being imprisoned, companies being raided for selling chemistry kits to kids, a decaying passenger train system that commonly delivers passengers several hours late, and government bailouts to pay the bonuses of the bankers who wrecked the economy.

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#286

Post by ohyes »

tkahn6 wrote: post #153
notahacker wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NHS employs a lot more people than Google and carries out research and development into saving people's lives. Sure, what Google does is great, but I'm really not convinced that thinking up ever more creative outlets to display targeted advertising is necessarily a better outcome for society than spending the money on the UK public sector, which has many worthwhile projects of its own. I'm going to go out on a li…

but it's equally a stretch to suggest that we're better off because Google pays less tax In absolutely no way is it a stretch to say that and I'm terribly surprised you have any upvotes. Are you aware of how many services Google provides for free that make my life (and probably yours) better? Google Search Google Maps Android Google Navigation (on Android) Google Patent Search Google Book Search (Working with librari…

"In absolutely no way is it a stretch to say that and I'm terribly surprised you have any upvotes. Are you aware of how many services Google provides for free that make my life (and probably yours) better?"

Not free. All of those things are paid for by Ads. Google is a for-profit company making billions of dollars.

There is nothing evil about doing legal things to pay less taxes (large public corporations are practically required to); but that doesn't mean that the government shouldn't fix the exploit. If i'm paying 30% taxes on my minimal salary, i think Google can cough up a bit more than 1% on its billions. (Billions which are made possible by government infrastructure, research, etc).

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#287

Post by privacyguru »

Google is smart and they are not alone in running their businesses like this. Pros and Cons -- sure the gov't misses out on some revenue but also many of those savings are reinvested into hiring and generating jobs and even more profits, which in the end, can still generate revenue for uncle sam.

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#288

Post by dgabriel »

jimmyk wrote: post #195
rdtsc wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most people clothe and feed and wash themselves How so? Most don't own the means to produce all those things. Most people buy those goods and choose between a range of available products. The fundamental flaw with that (at least as far as I see) is what happens if the products are unsafe. Imagine that FDA wasn't there (or its European equivalent) and companies could sell you anything whatsoever as food. How often h…

>Imagine that FDA wasn't there (or its European equivalent) and companies could sell you anything whatsoever as food. How often have you gone shopping with a pestiside testing kid, a bacterial testing kit and a geiger counter? How do you know that all 15 type of shampoo you can buy don't all have mercury in them? Why does it have to be a government agency that's doing the testing? What's to stop a private company wit…

I guess the only problem with a private company instead of a governmental regulatory agency ensuring product safety is that the risk will mostly be born by the poor. Anyone unable to purchase a product tested by a private company with a good seal will be protected by nothing and nobody (not that they're always protected now).

Of course, I think there's a middle ground. Too much government regulation is terrible for everyone, but too little disparately impacts those of little means.

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#289

Post by gthank »

codexon wrote: post #239
anthuswilliams wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does his being a college freshman have to do with the argument? I call ad hominem.

It has everything to do with the argument. He thinks that Google invented or revolutionized webmail, maps, etc... when it is clear to anyone who's been on the internet for more than 8 years that they were only incremental updates.

It's all subjective, but for me the usability enhancements of GMail are far, FAR more than evolutionary.

Re: The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions

#290

Post by fiveo »

elai wrote: post #278
fiveo wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In BC, if you are a hi-tech company, you are eligible to receive SR&ED (given by the government, but you need to fill some paperworks). In the short-term, it's great because it gives your company some money to survive. In the long-term, when your actual balance sheet is red but because of SR&ED it becomes green, most companies are lying to themselves. There are many companies in BC that rely on SR&ED and as a result,…

Wouldn't that be the fact for any low tax corporation structure?

I'm not 100% sure. I believe even big corporation might receive some too (there might be a max amount).
Post reply on HN