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Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

taxwatchuk.org

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Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#51

Post by Scoundreller »

FDSGSG wrote: post #39
Scoundreller wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The company is currently under investigation by tax authorities in the UK, Sweden and France over alleged transfer pricing irregularities and is is facing a potential bill of over $1.1bn in back taxes and penalties. > In the United States, Activision Blizzard has recently settled a transfer pricing dispute with tax authorities for $345m. Maybe not so legal?

Hard to say before the courts decide. I've personally been through such disputes with tax authorities and prevailed.

Doesn't sound "perfectly legal" when tax authorities are running after you.

Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#52

Post by devwastaken »

thekyle wrote: post #28
devwastaken wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal /=/ moral

There is nothing immoral about legally minimizing your tax liability. This is like saying that it's immoral for me to contribute to my Roth IRA.

Blizzard takes significant advantage of the product of taxes massively disproportionate to any individual. They have an obligation to pay into it how they use it, and they have the money but purposefully are going around it. There is a lot immoral about it.

Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#53

Post by FDSGSG »

Scoundreller wrote: post #51
FDSGSG wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to say before the courts decide. I've personally been through such disputes with tax authorities and prevailed.

Doesn't sound "perfectly legal" when tax authorities are running after you.

Dunno, in my case the court agreed that my actions were "perfectly legal".

Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#54

Post by ravitation »

FDSGSG wrote: post #39
Scoundreller wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The company is currently under investigation by tax authorities in the UK, Sweden and France over alleged transfer pricing irregularities and is is facing a potential bill of over $1.1bn in back taxes and penalties. > In the United States, Activision Blizzard has recently settled a transfer pricing dispute with tax authorities for $345m. Maybe not so legal?

Hard to say before the courts decide. I've personally been through such disputes with tax authorities and prevailed.

Settling a tax dispute with $345 million owed is indicative of doing something wrong. It's different than you just being audited.

At best it's indicative of bad accounting, but for a company like Activision Blizzard and at that amount that seems unlikely.

Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#55

Post by Operyl »

deogeo wrote: post #41
Operyl wrote: post #4

I, unfortunately, can't really blame the company for doing something that's legal. They're literally just doing what's best for the company's shareholders, and they'd be yelled at for doing anything otherwise. If we want this fixed, our lawmakers need to change the laws.

Yes the laws need to be changed, but that does not absolve the companies - it's called 'lawful evil'. Did you also not blame cigarette companies for advertising and selling what they knew was poison, or oil companies for keeping their knowledge about climate change secret?

I think you took a major step up from something that isn't actively killing anyone to something that is.

Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#56

Post by blub »

FDSGSG wrote: post #6

It's downright ridiculous to complain about companies taking perfectly legal steps to reduce their tax burden. As the oft-quoted US judge Learned Hand said: > Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is…

This business-friendly, or rather business-subservient attitude is puzzling to me.

You do know that we have the right to complain about whatever we want in democracies, and this can be one of the paths that change is enacted through, I assume. So why exactly are you trying to censor those that complain, because it makes you feel uncomfortable?

We will criticize tax evasion and even lawful-evil tax avoidance. You will have to live with it. If free speech becomes unbearable, I'm afraid the only solution right now is moving to North Korea, China or any of those countries where it's not tolerated.

Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#57

Post by grzm »

ravitation wrote: post #26
FDSGSG wrote: post #6

It's downright ridiculous to complain about companies taking perfectly legal steps to reduce their tax burden. As the oft-quoted US judge Learned Hand said: > Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is…

EDIT - For HN Guidelines: Any obligation (other than legal) that Activision Blizzard has to paying taxes is not the point of the article. The point the article makes is... > The case of Activision Blizzard is just another example demonstrating the need for governments to introduce more effective measures to deal with royalty-based tax avoidance schemes. In the UK this means changing legislation to make sure that roya…

> "Did you read the article? The point the article makes is..."

You're likely getting downvoted because you're explicitly violating the guidelines.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."

Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#58

Post by andrewprock »

thekyle wrote: post #28
devwastaken wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal /=/ moral

There is nothing immoral about legally minimizing your tax liability. This is like saying that it's immoral for me to contribute to my Roth IRA.

If you do it legally, there is nothing illegal about it. If you do it illegally then it's illegal.

If you are doing it in such a way as to violate the social contract, then regardless of legality, I think a case could be made that it is immoral.

Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#59

Post by Scoundreller »

FDSGSG wrote: post #30
CogitoCogito wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem isn't with the corporations, the problem (if it exists at all!) may be with the legislation. > Complain about the law. Do you not suppose that these large corporations with so much money at stake do not in fact use their resources to ensure that laws take their current form? Do believe they are somehow innocent actors in this drama?

I'm absolutely sure Activision Blizzard (a relatively small company) had no significant impact on how these laws were written.

I doubt they dreamed up these schemes themselves. Rather they hired some big accountancy firm that does have impacts on how laws are written to do this work.

Re: Activision Blizzard has moved billions of dollars of profit into tax havens

#60

Post by mrighele »

FDSGSG wrote: post #39
Scoundreller wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The company is currently under investigation by tax authorities in the UK, Sweden and France over alleged transfer pricing irregularities and is is facing a potential bill of over $1.1bn in back taxes and penalties. > In the United States, Activision Blizzard has recently settled a transfer pricing dispute with tax authorities for $345m. Maybe not so legal?

Hard to say before the courts decide. I've personally been through such disputes with tax authorities and prevailed.

In the article they mention that they moved money to countries that are in a EU blacklist so for now i am siding with tax authorities
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