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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

#41

Post by bulldoa »

gamblor956 wrote: post #24
_bxg1 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What metric are we basing on here?

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

#42

Post by maxxxxx »

_bxg1 wrote: post #15
_bxg1 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, that's surprising. It has a dodgy foothold in mobile, Amazon (and possibly also Google?) has it beat in cloud services, Google Docs has taken a chunk of Office's territory, Chrome OS is overtaking Windows in education, Mobile+Apple+Chrome OS are swallowing it in personal computing and (I believe) gaining some ground even in enterprise. It doesn't seem like Microsoft has dominance in anything but desktop OS right…

Maybe it's just better diversified than its competitors, and it's only an underdog in each individual product category (except desktop OS, for now at least), and not as a whole.

They have shown a remarkable ability to survive complete paradigm changes, keep growing and stay profitable. The FAANGs still have to prove that.

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

#43

Post by gamblor956 »

bulldoa wrote: post #41
gamblor956 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What metric are we basing on here?

Since I'm arguing from the research standpoint, published research or citations by other research.

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

#44

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#45

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#46

Post by anth_anm »

almost_usual wrote: post #5
hbosch wrote: post #3

Isn't the general argument that state taxes mean almost nothing to businesses like Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, et al (in Washington State) but are actually a huge pain in the ass for small/mid-size businesses? The quote featured in this headline underscores an editorial bias that is pro-Microsoft (who keeps their campus in the suburb of Renton) and anti-Amazon (the scapegoat for rising Seattle real estate).

>Isn't the general argument that state taxes mean almost nothing to businesses like Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, et al (in Washington State) but are actually a huge pain in the ass for small/mid-size businesses? "The bill proposes increasing the state business and occupation tax by 20 percent on about 40 categories of technical services, such as telecom, engineering, medical and finance. And by 33 percent on tech firms…

That's true, but what is the rate now?

If it's going from 3% to 5% that's not as bad as 10 to 17 or whatever.

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

#47

Post by int_19h »

donavanm wrote: post #33
cheeze wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> police aren’t that bad (compared to other cities) You mean the police department that was investigated by the DOJ for being engaged in a "pattern or pratice" of violating constitutional rights through excessive force, specifically against minorities? The same police department that turns a blind eye to _any_ property crime? Just making sure that we're talking about the same Seattle Police Department here. SPD has b…

1) i presume youre talking about the consent decree and mou dating from ~2011. Which spd has been in full conpliance with. And IIRC this is the last year of “sustainment” monitoring. 2) thats SPD abiding by prosecutor enforcement priorities. Go ask the king county DA why they dismissed 1500 misdemeanors last year, why they wont prosecute theft or vandalism, or why illegal firearm possession is book and release.

> why illegal firearm possession is book and release.

Wait, seriously?

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

#48

Post by anth_anm »

mallocfree wrote: post #39
_bxg1 wrote: post #2

> I don’t know what’s gotten into Microsoft lately. Remember when it was the Death Star, monopolistically glowering over technopolis and threatening to cut off the air supply of competitors and regulators alike? Microsoft is a relative underdog now (among the tech giants). Underdogs tend to benefit more, personally, from the greater good, and also have less clout with which to push others around. This makes them come…

>Microsoft is a relative underdog now (among the tech giants). How do you define a Tech giant? By Market cap they are #1. Here are top 5. 1. Microsoft $895B 2. Apple $888B 3. Amazon $867B 4. Google $816B 5. Facebook $473B They have been in top 3 for last 30 years with a robust business model. They missed on Mobile and search but hey it would be hard for any tech company to top in each market.

Settling for #2 in search and cloud isn't exactly a bad consolation prize.

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

#49

Post by kerng »

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…

Well, if you move to New Jersey you will be in for a surprise with your property taxes. This tax proposal hits the corporation, not the employees. And its laughable, and shameful, how little tax Amazon pays.

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

#50

Post by seanmcdirmid »

cheeze wrote: post #31
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Property and sales tax are necessary in Washington in lieu of an income tax. If you live in Seattle, schooling, roads and even the police aren’t that bad (compared to other cities), heck, you can choose to live in Bellevue where all those things are better (though at the cost of being boring). In general, taxes get used pretty darn well in WA, at least compared to other states.

> police aren’t that bad (compared to other cities) You mean the police department that was investigated by the DOJ for being engaged in a "pattern or pratice" of violating constitutional rights through excessive force, specifically against minorities? The same police department that turns a blind eye to _any_ property crime? Just making sure that we're talking about the same Seattle Police Department here. SPD has b…

Relative to other cities, the SPD isn’t bad. They are putting up with typical boom town problems, but that is really nothing new for Seattle given its historically enhanced position in the boom/bust cycle.
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