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Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

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Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#171

Post by manquer »

wolco wrote: post #137
citilife wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not siding one way or the other, that will definitely limit the amount of expertise that comes with a Congressman/Congresswoman. Think about it, it takes at least six months for us to learn our jobs, they have to learn about hundreds of things ongoing in the government before they can make informed decisions. You then even rely more on lobbyists (or "experts") who at least generally know what they are talking about.…

Lobbyist being experts is something I've never heard before. They are salesmen, do you want to get your nutrient information from a McDonald's commercial? It may save you time but isn't really helpful.

Lobbyists will bring in the "expert" with necessary credentials who can "advice" on the finer points of legislation, give talking points etc. They might not directly project expertise

Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#172

Post by pluc »

driverdan wrote: post #34

Rather than being outraged at the headline, what are the actual details? Why were they able to pay no taxes? Was it due to carried losses or something like that? Anyone mad at a company for not pay taxes is misdirecting their anger. Companies follow the law. If you don't like the law elect different politicians. Don't get mad at companies that follow the law.

I love that in arguments like these there's always someone who switches the blame to the consumer.

There are lots of things that are unwritten rules in life. The consumer is expected to follow them, why would it be any different for corporations? Not paying you fair contribution to society might not be illegal, but it sure sounds immoral to me.

I think it's about time everyone stops shrugging this shit away.

Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#173

Post by briandear »

shawnz wrote: post #47
driverdan wrote: post #34

Rather than being outraged at the headline, what are the actual details? Why were they able to pay no taxes? Was it due to carried losses or something like that? Anyone mad at a company for not pay taxes is misdirecting their anger. Companies follow the law. If you don't like the law elect different politicians. Don't get mad at companies that follow the law.

> Anyone mad at a company for not pay taxes is misdirecting their anger. Companies follow the law. If you don't like the law elect different politicians. Don't get mad at companies that follow the law. Agreed. Are they supposed to purposely waste their shareholders money to take a moral stance against tax avoidance? When it's something that any corporation can do, then they have no choice but to do it to stay competi…

They have regulators. In the US they’re the IRS. And the regulations are being followed apparently.

Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#174

Post by nomel »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #165
driverdan wrote: post #34

Rather than being outraged at the headline, what are the actual details? Why were they able to pay no taxes? Was it due to carried losses or something like that? Anyone mad at a company for not pay taxes is misdirecting their anger. Companies follow the law. If you don't like the law elect different politicians. Don't get mad at companies that follow the law.

What a naive view, frankly. Yes, it's probably perfectly legal for them (and others) to pay single-digit taxes. And they can do so because they can 1) afford expensive lawyers and tax advisors, and 2) lobby congress to protect them indefinitely. It's unfair, plain and simple. Stop pretending it's right only because it's legal.

I think his point is that some set of arbitrary morals don't stop behavior when filing taxes, laws do.

Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#175

Post by ahoy »

driverdan wrote: post #34

Rather than being outraged at the headline, what are the actual details? Why were they able to pay no taxes? Was it due to carried losses or something like that? Anyone mad at a company for not pay taxes is misdirecting their anger. Companies follow the law. If you don't like the law elect different politicians. Don't get mad at companies that follow the law.

Companies lobby politicians/make campaign contributions/fly them to expensive resorts to be wine'd, dine'd and golf'd.

Then politicians make policy that favors those wealthy companies.

Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#176

Post by airstrike »

frebord wrote: post #136

Can someone explain to me why businesses pay any tax at all. It makes no sense to me that we want to restrict the flow of money through a business. Maybe we could tax cash holdings of a company, but why would you tax any income that ultimately goes to expansion, shareholders, employees? People see these "tax evading" corporations as so evil, but why? Do they really even remotely understand what is going on? I suspect…

In part because shareholders only pay capital gains on their stock as opposed to income taxes

Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#177

Post by zdragnar »

mcny wrote: post #131
refurb wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question - can you give an example of a tax law that was lobbied for that benefited corporations? And I mean beyond just a decrease in tax rate which businesses would be expected to lobby for.

> Honest question - can you give an example of a tax law that was lobbied for that benefited corporations? I don't know the answer so this is just speculation and five seconds of Googling (but I am writing this regardless because I hope someone knowledgeable will see this and correct me so I actually learn something) My first stop was https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corporatetax.asp > Corporations are permitted…

> For example, when I was a contractor my boss told me that I am a "cap ex" which is OK but for some reason he couldn't bring me on as full time because reasons.

My last job had a number of people in a similar situation. The reason was fairly straight forward: Higher-ups in the parent company decided how many full-time developers we would need over the next 5-10 years, and anything we needed on top of that had to be contractors because we were only filling short-term needs.

Nobody in the chain between us and them actually understood the rationale, because it was a totally arbitrary number for a plan made under assumptions that were no longer the case. Unfortunately, noone could convince them that it wasn't the case either, so we all just carried on.

Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#178

Post by dawhizkid »

driverdan wrote: post #34

Rather than being outraged at the headline, what are the actual details? Why were they able to pay no taxes? Was it due to carried losses or something like that? Anyone mad at a company for not pay taxes is misdirecting their anger. Companies follow the law. If you don't like the law elect different politicians. Don't get mad at companies that follow the law.

I'm guessing a lot of people on here will be shocked, if you aren't shocked already, by their tax returns this year. The new $10k cap on SALT (state and local tax) deductions, which was previously unlimited, will really hurt a lot of people living in high tax states like CA and NY/NJ, especially those who have even a modest property in those states.

Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#179

Post by justrudd »

manux wrote: post #109
rayiner wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your last point is precisely backwards. Total annual lobbying spending is just $3.7 billion a year, in a $19 trillion economy. It's a tiny amount of money compared to the stakes. If lobbying was so effective companies would spend way more money on it. It's also notable that you couldn't point to a specific tax law, like OP asked for. Lower taxes in general--nobody needs to lobby for that, there is a large con…

$3.7 billion a year is a lot. There aren't that many politicians to bribe.

If you keep it only at the federal level and assume that staff isn't being "lobbied",

100 senators 435 representatives 1 President 1 Vice President

~7 million dollars per person per year

:)

Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes

#180

Post by beat »

This seems to be a good place for my own take on taxes...

1. Abolish corporate income tax.

2. Tax capital gains (and dividends) as ordinary income.

The corporate income tax is absurd. It doesn't generate a lot of revenue, but it has a bazillion highly specific loopholes, supporting a whole cottage industry of lobbyists and accountants. It's an unfair advantage to large corporations that can afford the tax-cutting power (like Netflix).

The capital gains rate is the source of our most gruesome wealth inequality. It's absurd that Mitt Romney pays half my effective tax rate on 200 times my income. The justification for low capital gains rates is "double taxation" due to corporate income tax. Abolishing corporate income tax eliminates that.

If the rich don't want to pay taxes, then they need to not liquify their investments. If corporations don't want to pay taxes, they need to reinvest their profits in growth.

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