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‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

seattletimes.com

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Re: ‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

#21

Post by blang »

influx wrote: post #10

How much tax are you going to get when Amazon shifts to HQ2? Bezos deliberately started Amazon here in Washington because there was no state tax. I’ve been an Amazon employee and I’ve paid a lot of taxes here and have seen the government waste that money. Our property tax has gone up by hundreds of dollars a month and our schools, roads, and police forces are still in disarray. I don’t mind paying tax as long as it’s…

People do often complain about the property taxes in Washington, which always makes me chuckle, because I grew up in New Jersey:

https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest...

Re: ‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

#22

Post by gamblor956 »

RHSeeger wrote: post #4

> Let’s ask the largest companies in the tech sector, which are the largest employers of high-skilled talent, to do a bit more I do not understand how people can not understand that a percentage tax, by it's definition, does have the largest companies pay more.

I do not understand how people can not understand that a percentage tax, by it's definition, does have the largest companies pay more.

I do not understand how people can not understand that the largest companies pay a lot of money to structure their taxes so that they pay proportionately less of their income in taxes than smaller companies do despite deriving significantly more economic benefits from the stable economic system those taxes enable.

Also, the percentage tax does not by definition mean that the largest companies pay more. It means that the most profitable companies (on an income tax basis) pay more taxes on an absolute basis than a similarly-sized company that makes less profit. However, Apple, Google, and GE are all (or at least in GE's case, was) highly-profitable companies that pay ridiculously low taxes for their profit because their "taxable" income is significantly less than their economic income.

Re: ‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

#24

Post by gamblor956 »

_bxg1 wrote: post #16
polyomino wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft used to be a boxed software business, now they're transitioning to saas. It's really that simple.

Right, but Amazon and Google are arguably better than them at SaaS. AWS is second to none for cloud hosting, and Google is second to none for AI.

Google is second to none for AI.

Definitely going to disagree there. While Google has done more work on commercializing piss-poor AI, MS Research has been at the forefront of AI research since before Google learned how to make money. Google is definitely the second fiddle when it comes to AI research, and it's not even close.

Re: ‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

#25

Post by RHSeeger »

ABCLAW wrote: post #20
RHSeeger wrote: post #4

> Let’s ask the largest companies in the tech sector, which are the largest employers of high-skilled talent, to do a bit more I do not understand how people can not understand that a percentage tax, by it's definition, does have the largest companies pay more.

>I do not understand how people can not understand that a percentage tax, by it's definition, does have the largest companies pay more. They don't understand it because it isn't true on a proportional basis (and in some cases on an absolute dollar value basis, too). Larger companies have access to tax avoidance strategies which are unavailable to smaller companies[1] which substantially changes the calculus. I've gon…

There seems to be a repeated response to what I said, so I'll just respond once. The fix for companies using loopholes to avoid taxes is not to raise the tax rate. The fix is to remove the loopholes.

Re: ‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

#26

Post by MagicPropmaker »

_bxg1 wrote: post #16
polyomino wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft used to be a boxed software business, now they're transitioning to saas. It's really that simple.

Right, but Amazon and Google are arguably better than them at SaaS. AWS is second to none for cloud hosting, and Google is second to none for AI.

Really? Try Office 365 vs Google Docs and get back to me! There's no comparison. Microsoft is better.

Re: ‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

#27

Post by ceejayoz »

RHSeeger wrote: post #25
ABCLAW wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I do not understand how people can not understand that a percentage tax, by it's definition, does have the largest companies pay more. They don't understand it because it isn't true on a proportional basis (and in some cases on an absolute dollar value basis, too). Larger companies have access to tax avoidance strategies which are unavailable to smaller companies[1] which substantially changes the calculus. I've gon…

There seems to be a repeated response to what I said, so I'll just respond once. The fix for companies using loopholes to avoid taxes is not to raise the tax rate. The fix is to remove the loopholes.

A decent chunk of the tax savings from loopholes is channeled back into preventing those loopholes from closing.

Re: ‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

#28

Post by bairrd »

RHSeeger wrote: post #25
ABCLAW wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I do not understand how people can not understand that a percentage tax, by it's definition, does have the largest companies pay more. They don't understand it because it isn't true on a proportional basis (and in some cases on an absolute dollar value basis, too). Larger companies have access to tax avoidance strategies which are unavailable to smaller companies[1] which substantially changes the calculus. I've gon…

There seems to be a repeated response to what I said, so I'll just respond once. The fix for companies using loopholes to avoid taxes is not to raise the tax rate. The fix is to remove the loopholes.

Why not both? People selling physical goods bake a certain percentage of shrinkange into the price of their goods whilst also finding new ways to prevent theft.

Re: ‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

#29

Post by RHSeeger »

gamblor956 wrote: post #22
RHSeeger wrote: post #4

> Let’s ask the largest companies in the tech sector, which are the largest employers of high-skilled talent, to do a bit more I do not understand how people can not understand that a percentage tax, by it's definition, does have the largest companies pay more.

I do not understand how people can not understand that a percentage tax, by it's definition, does have the largest companies pay more. I do not understand how people can not understand that the largest companies pay a lot of money to structure their taxes so that they pay proportionately less of their income in taxes than smaller companies do despite deriving significantly more economic benefits from the stable econo…

> I do not understand how people can not understand that the largest companies pay a lot of money to structure their taxes so that they pay proportionately less of their income in taxes than smaller companies do despite deriving significantly more economic benefits from the stable economic system those taxes enable.

I understand it that just fine. I just prefer to fix the problem, not the symptom.

Re: ‘Making Amazon look bad’: Microsoft supports a state tax on businesses

#30

Post by MuffinFlavored »

pikapikamtf wrote: post #23

i don't think it takes any effort to make amazon look bad

yet there's no competitor even close to capturing its marketplace share

Mom + pop e-commerce retail sites are dying

Jet/Walmart capture what percentage of market share? If I had to guess, it'd be like... 5%?

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