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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

#211

Post by sabalaba »

beat wrote: post #180

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 pow…

"Double taxation" refers to taxation at the corporate income tax level and then again at the personal income tax level when dividends are paid out to shareholders. "Double taxation" and capital gains don't have anything to do with each other.

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

#212

Post by airstrike »

beat wrote: post #180

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 pow…

Good luck taxing all the foreign citizen who happen to own US stocks

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

#213

Post by rudolph9 »

elcomet wrote: post #72
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.

Big companies lobby every law for their benefits. They hire full time lobyists. Big companies can pay million $ a year for lobbying. Then the question is, does it really influence laws? Well I think if it didn't, they wouldn't spend so much money.

I think that person was asking what one example is.

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

#214

Post by LanceH »

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…

If a business paid no taxes, then you would have business developed that do nothing other than put money to work and they would never pay taxes on their gains at all. They would become glorified savings accounts to delay taxes on realized gains indefinitely.

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

#215

Post by skh »

theevilsharpie wrote: post #155
skh wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest it's not as simple as just saying "vote" given the massive disparity in funding capabilities between the average citizen and the average Fortune 500 company. Money is powerful and greatly influences elections. Now due to media consolidation, Facebook, etc. it's also easy to manipulate at a grand scale. Politicians who vote the right way can guarantee very high paying jobs when they are out of office. It see…

> I suggest it's not as simple as just saying "vote" given the massive disparity in funding capabilities between the average citizen and the average Fortune 500 company. Money is powerful and greatly influences elections You can find examples in almost any election of a heavily-funded initiative being defeated at the polls. Here in California, a recent example I can think of off the top of my head is the continual de…

I can find examples of a roulette spin landing on 00. However such examples are rare. In the same way one can find examples of where a well funded candidate did not win when going against a relatively underfunded candidate.

In circumstances of elections is best to talk about probabilities and concentrate on what is normative.

...you can't claim that democracy isn't working just because it didn't produce the result that you agree with.

I claim that American democracy is broken because it consistently produces results that are not in the the long term interests of the nation and are not done in the interest of the people. There are lots of reasons to support my belief but none of them have anything to do with me personally not liking the results it produces. Indeed, I'm quite satisfied with the results of the last Presidential election cycle. My candidate won.

I might be wrong in my belief that American democracy is broken.

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

#216

Post by devonkim »

chanandler_bong wrote: post #79
otachack wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that simple. Companies lobby to keep, even coerce, laws that benefit them and allow these sorts of things to happen. What is the common person, or collection of persons, supposed to do when they are against that kind of force? I believe one way is to actually be involved in politics and get into the seats that govern and make the laws. But it's easier said than done.

The answer is to outlaw lobbyists, it would fix a lot of problems. That, and enact term limits for Congress. That will fix even more.

I’ve heard of an interesting argument against term limits and that it would strengthen political parties as they try to keep the pipeline of successors full. I do not know if there is any research to back it but the intuition makes sense at least and may be testable. We saw regulatory capture as a concept with almost no evidence until they looked at hockey referees and the calls they make over their careers, so something comparable would be worth looking at for term limits.

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

#217

Post by rchaud »

danso wrote: post #153
chanandler_bong wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is to outlaw lobbyists, it would fix a lot of problems. That, and enact term limits for Congress. That will fix even more.

The First Amendment protects the right to petition the government. Outlawing lobbying would require a significant campaign to amend the Constitution.

Lobbying would be toothless without campaign contributions. Money on the table is the only reason why lobbyists get meetings and average citizens get a full voicemail inbox and templated auto-response.

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

#218

Post by hjanssen »

delecti wrote: post #183
wolco wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The EFF is at least partially a lobbying group, do you think they're salesmen? Lobbying is just people talking to the government.

Though there is a distinction between corporate lobbying and e.g. the EFF: corporations lobby for their own interests, the EFF does it for everyone. Besides that, if company lobbying did not exist, the EFF wouldnt exist because there would be no one to work against. The EFF was specificly founded to defend the peoples interests against corporations.

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

#219

Post by shawnz »

jayko wrote: post #135
shawnz wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Regulators don't care about stopping it, they only care about lining up their pockets. You have a corrupt agent and then you expect another corrupt agent to do you justice.

> You have a corrupt agent and then you expect another corrupt agent to do you justice.

I don't expect anything. I am just saying that regulators are the only ones in a position to stop tax avoidance. Corporations might be corrupt or they might not, and it would have no impact on the issue either way. The corruption of regulators is the sole cause of tax avoidance, not the corruption of corporations. Even morally sound corporations are forced to use tax avoidance to be competitive, since it is legally permitted. If they don't, they will be outcompeted. Therefore whether or not a corporation is corrupt has no impact on whether it will use tax avoidance.

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

#220

Post by trumped »

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.

> If you don't like the law elect different politicians.

lol, you are being hopeful. (for example, I voted for Obama because he promised to repeal the "PATRIOT" Act and instead of doing that, he made it worst)

(But I agree with you that the laws are the problem...)

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