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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

#481

Post by anth_anm »

jki275 wrote: post #460
anth_anm wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is a democracy. It's not a direct democracy. it's flawed because the system is outdated and broken. It was a system designed to consolidate power among white landowners and to be extremely difficult to change. It's not a surprise it's got issues.

The US is a Representative Republic, which differs from a democracy in several significant ways. It was designed to be difficult to change because democracies always fail when the majority decides the rule of law is no longer important.

A democracy and a republican are not mutually exclusive. The US is a democracy.

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

#482

Post by stevenalowe »

otachack wrote: post #46
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.

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.

Funny how removing the government's ability to interfere in our lives was not mentioned as a solution. Public brainwashing complete.

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

#483

Post by omarforgotpwd »

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.

It’s pretty simple. I’m surprised more people don’t know about this.

it’s called net operating loss. when you’ve lost money over the last ten years you can deduct those losses from your gains and only pay taxes on the difference.

Makes senses, right? A business needs to cover the losses before there is really a “profit” to pay taxes on. But this ends up incentivizing losing money, and makes the silicon valley business model of raising a ton of money and running at a loss to try and dominate the market a lot more profitable

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

#484

Post by tptacek »

standerman wrote: post #104
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…

Maybe most companies can get the results that they want with small, strategic lobbying. It could be both effective and efficient, from an economic standpoint. Why else would organizations like ALEC exist? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_...

Why shouldn't ALEC exist? There is a sizable fraction of our polity that believes in the principles underlying ALEC proposals. Are you upset that those people are organized enough to write model legislation, or are you upset that the countervailing forces in the US don't have something as effective as ALEC?

We have the same thing for judges. The conservatives have the Federalist Society. The liberals have the ACS. But for whatever reason, the Federalists have better branding, and are a perennial bogeyman. But all either organization does is keep track of judges that fit their policy goals. What's wrong with that?

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

#485

Post by skh »

manquer wrote: post #474
skh wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company takes in money from products and services it sells. From this amount of money the company pays employees and equipment, services, etc. for the running of the company. These are called expenses in business accounting. The company does not pay tax on the money it took in that it then spent buying/paying for things. This is what is meant by the phrase, "companies don't pay tax on expenses".

You pay the tax on your expenses even if you have zero income . I am not talking about the tax you charge on your product and collect on behalf of the government. I am talking about the tax you pay for stuff you consume as a company. While you may be able to offset some of the taxes you have paid already against what you collect from the customer like in Value Added Tax, you still pay those taxes on your consumption…

I defined the meaning of the phrase "businesses don't pay tax on expenses". My posts have only to do with the meaning I defined. My posts have nothing to do with what you are talking about.

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

#486

Post by [deleted] »

rchaud wrote: post #449
Consultant32452 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When The Young Turks spent millions of dollars in air time endorsing Hillary, was that a campaign contribution?

No, for the same reason that astroturfing online about sending the troops into south side Chicago isn't a campaign contribution; it's not exchanging money for influence. With your example, Hillary Clinton would be a billionaire for doing that inane dance on Ellen.

[deleted]

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

#487

Post by redblacktree »

OrwellianChild wrote: post #363
anigbrowl wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no good reason investment income should be privileged over income from labor.

At risk of bottoming out on the threaded replies, I'd be interested in talking through how that would work... Let's say you wanted to give income from labor the same benefits as (negative) income from investments that lost money... How would you do that? Say I earn a healthy $250K/year at my W-2 job. If I buy a large house with the proceeds from my job, have I incurred a loss? How about if I eat out at an expensive r…

How about if we start with deducting my expenses for commuting to the office? $0.58 per mile would add up to about $2,900/year for my commute.

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

#488

Post by ericd »

prostoalex wrote: post #411
anigbrowl wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no good reason investment income should be privileged over income from labor.

During low-inflation years - no. The lenient rates were introduced during high-inflation years. If somebody was pursuing a long-term project spanning over several years (let's say, building a new apartment complex), high punitive tax rates at liquidity time (let's say, 5 years down the road) combined with decreased buying would obliterate any real profitability. The 12-month cut-off window, though, seems completely a…

This is a very interesting point. It seems to me that we should tax capital gains at normal income rates, but only after adjusting the cost basis for inflation. It’s a little insane that we pay tax on the inflation adjustments for TIPs and other supposedly inflation neutral instruments, which all but guarantees that they lose money every year.

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

#489

Post by objektif »

FireBeyond wrote: post #478
Spivak wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a stupid argument. Say we have 100 people in our economy, 90 of them $50k, 9 of them make $200k, and 1 person makes 1 million. Everyone invests 10% of their income in 'stoks' which cost $5/each. Each of the 90 people invest $5k and have 1000 stoks. Each of the 9 people invest $20k and have 4000 stoks. The millionaire invests $100k and has 20,000 stoks. The top 10% have 99.96% of the stoks. It would be weird i…

Except it's not 10%, or 1%. It's stats like "3 hedge fund makers make more than 140,000 teachers". The problem isn't disparity, it's the absolute mind boggling nature of it.

Yeah his example is comical in the sense that it kind of shows the nature of the problem.

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

#490

Post by AdamHede »

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.

While that on principal is true, as an average citizen, digging into whether or not Netflix actually did something illegal is logistically impossible (not to mention requires skill very few outside of private industry-tax-optimization has).

Looking at a successful company like Netflix, boasting massive profits and growing fast while paying no taxes is a reasonable proxy for something not being right.

Either Netflix is doing something wrong (and the public needs to take action) or the system is broken (and the public needs to take action).

In either case, anger and discussion is in its place

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