Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes • Hacker News Board

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

#291

Post by CharlesColeman » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

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…

I agree with you on #2, but not on #1.

I think the correct reform of the corporate income tax is to abolish the "bazillion highly specific loopholes." If it was abolished entirely, I think you'd very quickly see corporations being set up and used purely to evade individual income tax, especially among the extremely wealthy.

That said, I do think it makes sense to not tax money at the corporate level that's remitted as dividends that would be taxed individually.

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

#292

Post by deeviant » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

chongli wrote: post #283

PurpleBoxDragon wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Over a reasonable horizon, you weren't profitable. The average worker isn't allowed to do that even when they lose money in a given year. Why is it so naturally assumed to be acceptable for a business to do it? Maybe the time is to just remove the loopholes in general from both business and personal income taxes.

Why is it so naturally assumed to be acceptable for a business to do it? Because a business isn't a person. Taxing a business is taking real money away from payrolls, money that would get taxed again anyway once it was paid out. Corporate income tax only makes sense when you look at it as a barrier to entry for competition in the marketplace. Big companies like Netflix know how to avoid taxes. Small companies don't.…

Except a large portion of revenue does not go to workers, but to shareholders, who pay far less taxes then those who strain their backs in creating said revenue.

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

#293

Post by pbhjpbhj » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #286

PurpleBoxDragon wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Over a reasonable horizon, you weren't profitable. The average worker isn't allowed to do that even when they lose money in a given year. Why is it so naturally assumed to be acceptable for a business to do it? Maybe the time is to just remove the loopholes in general from both business and personal income taxes.

An average worker has few job-related expenses.

A lot of workers need a vehicle (or season pass on public transport), need a different location for their dwelling - both of these amount to a pretty hefty addition to a workers costs.

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

#294

Post by andrewla » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #217

danso wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't know how pedantic you're intending to be here; what do you consider a "campaign contribution". If you use the traditional definition of a "campaign contribution", that is, money given to the candidate to be spent on election campaigns, then this is completely false; lobbyists cannot give any more money to campaigns than regular people can.

The power of large lobbies is more closely related to the fact that they represent a large number of constituents who donate and vote (approximately) as a block.

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

#295

Post by tomnipotent » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:34 PM UTC

Charlaxy wrote: post #101

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.

Or we could elect people who can't be bought by lobbyists because they have principles. I was taught in poli-sci classes that the single biggest issue wasn't so much the principles of law makers as it was their capabilities and their staff. Most law-makers are incapable of doing the (sometimes overwhelming amount of) work, and rely on hiring professionals to work as a team to review law and then tell the law-makers h…

> Or we could elect people who can't be bought by lobbyists because they have principles

Don't see how idealism and fantasies of heroes is going to make our government better. How about we stop expecting mythical people to exist and come save us from the bad guys.

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

#296

Post by clairity » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:35 PM UTC

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…

your reasoning doesn't quite follow your assertions.

abolishing corporate taxes would be counterproductive to your goal of leveling the playing field. corporations would become even greater bastions of wealth shielding, not less. rather, equalizing corporate, capital gains, and individual income tax rates would go a long way to making things more fair. however, you have many other inequalities, like the corporate tax shield and carry-forward (-back) deductions.

and the capital gains rate is but one brick in the wealth accumulation firewall. the justification for lower capital gains rate is to encourage putting capital to productive use, not double taxation (as sibling commenter mentions), but it's a poor justification. as long as one more dollar can be made, (some) folks will find a way to make that dollar, with or without any external incentive. it's just a giveaway to wealthy patrons by politicians.

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

#297

Post by crdoconnor » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:36 PM UTC

naasking wrote: post #227

undecisive wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from the fact that many countries have ways of limiting lobbyist influence through law, a simple but dramatic way would be to say: 0. Lobbying is a right, but one that can only be exercised by individual citizens, not corporations. 1. Anyone who wishes to "lobby" congressional candidates or congresspersons must register their financial interests 2. Make it illegal to directly accept money for lobbying services…

> 0. Lobbying is a right, but one that can only be exercised by individual citizens, not corporations. So charities and environmental groups can't lobby? Lobbying for them means designating a representative. How is that any different from what corporations are doing? They just happen to have deeper pockets. Furthermore, the fact that they have deep pockets is actually important . It means they reflect an important as…

>So charities and environmental groups can't lobby?

They could create form letters for their members to email their representatives.

Some charities I belong to operate this way.

Obviously Comcast could do this too but I don't think they'd be successful getting real people to lobby on their behalf.

>Furthermore, the fact that they have deep pockets is actually important. It means they reflect an important aspect of the economy, so ignoring their interests could also have detrimental economic effects.

The fact that they have deep pockets means that they can broadcast their message more easily so they have an inbuilt advantage. There's no reason not to compensate for that.

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

#298

Post by exabrial » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:36 PM UTC

> is precisely the sort of company that should be paying its fair share of income taxes

This greatly annoys me. We have a massive federal budget already. Personally 30 cents of every 100 cents I own is taken from me forcibly.

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

#299

Post by lmilcin » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:37 PM UTC

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.

More than that, public companies have obligation to maximise profits for their shareholders as long as they are following the letter of law. There is not much choice here, they can't pay even if they wanted unless they can show this is somehow in shareholders' best interest.

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

#300

Post by pbhjpbhj » Wed, Feb 06, 2019, 6:38 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #278

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.

Corporate taxes are value destructive. A company is either going to use that money to expand, creating a more jobs, paying employees more - who will pay taxes, or buy back stock or pay dividends. The only real issue I have is the difference between capital gains taxes and income taxes.

Or do some bullshit accounting to move the money off-shore, like pay billions to use their own trademark to a country in which they bought off politicians to get low taxes; so they can pay out the money without paying in to the governmental system in the country in which the money was raised.