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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

#111

Post by emiliobumachar »

blub wrote: post #56
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…

You are, of course, in your right. It just won't have any effect.

Gp is probably on your side in wanting this sort of thing over, and just trying to redirect your energy towards a legislative solution.

A legislative solution would be hard, but a moral solution enforced by shame is borderline impossible. There are too many corporations, if we damage the brand of one once a month it's still a risk worth ignoring.

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

#112

Post by Retric »

lukevdp wrote: post #108
deogeo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you think lobbies for such laws?

Politicians don’t have to listen to lobbyists. The blame lies with politicians.

Everyone talking to a politician about an issue is a lobbyist, that’s what lobbing means.

It’s easy to think only those people you disagree with are lobbyists, but even just sending a letter to your congressional representative is lobbying. And there are paid lobbyists on both sides of almost every issue.

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

#113

Post by mycall »

lukevdp wrote: post #108
deogeo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you think lobbies for such laws?

Politicians don’t have to listen to lobbyists. The blame lies with politicians.

> Politician's lies are to blame.

FTFY

But with the high cost of being elected, of course politicans follow the money and the corruption that goes with it.

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

#114

Post by sdwisely »

oconnor663 wrote: post #106
mattmanser wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not. That's how change happens. It's still perfectly legal to destroy the environment in many ways, it doesn't mean we can't complain about it. If we don't talk about it, nothing happens.

No one designed the environment to be destroyed. But tax laws are often designed precisely to incentivize people to behave in a certain way. If we raise taxes on cigarettes, and then people smoke less, and tax revenue goes down, does anyone complain? Of course not; that's why we raised taxes on cigarettes. Now sometimes you have tax laws that are poorly designed, where we don't like what happens when people follow th…

following the cigarette example though at some point the trend seems to stop declining and the black market fills the gap

in some sense tax havens are kind of like black market banks

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

#115

Post by [deleted] »

mntmoss wrote: post #109
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…

The players of the video games made by Activision-Blizzard complain every day about trivial and inconsequential aspects of the products and how they play. We don't say about them, "oh, but that is just the way the game is made, you should adapt to it." They are systems of rules akin to law enforced with computer code, designed, among other things, to demonstrate superior player skill, and one of the most common sourc…

[deleted]

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

#116

Post by ryanlol »

mntmoss wrote: post #109
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…

The players of the video games made by Activision-Blizzard complain every day about trivial and inconsequential aspects of the products and how they play. We don't say about them, "oh, but that is just the way the game is made, you should adapt to it." They are systems of rules akin to law enforced with computer code, designed, among other things, to demonstrate superior player skill, and one of the most common sourc…

People don’t complain about specific twink characters, they complain about the rules that allow that.

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

#117

Post by rasz »

adonnjohn wrote: post #3
Trias11 wrote: post #2

As long as it is legal - tax avoidance strategies makes perfect sense. Why waste money on buying extra taxes? Tax evasion does not count of course.

I just wish they would go back to making satisfying games.

They are about to release one of their better games .. for the third time in a row, COD4MW.

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

#118

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

ryanlol wrote: post #103
DanBC wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often with complex tax schemes we don't know if they're legal or not because they haven't been tested in courts. Some governments focus on low-hanging fruit or on flagrant tax evasion. They don't want a long running court case costing millions with an uncertain outcome. So we never get to find out whether this scheme is legal avoidance or illegal evasion. But, even if it's legal avoidance: I pay my tax. Why shouldn't…

So, what exactly stops the politicians from writing simple and clear tax laws? It wouldn’t be hard for the lawmakers to eliminate this uncertainty, they just want to remain competitive.

I've always wondered what about the spirit of the law/contract in these cases?

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

#119

Post by anm89 »

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…

I'm usually pretty libertarian but I disagree here.

Yeah don't fault corporations for maximizing profits legally, that's literally their sole purpose.

But it is absolutely valid to say that the laws are bad laws and that we should change them.

And these laws are bad laws and we should change them.

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

#120

Post by anm89 »

FDSGSG wrote: post #62
CogitoCogito wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness the quote I responded to was this: > The problem isn't with the corporations... Are you saying that _none_ of the corporations with large money at stake are taking the financially rational approach of influencing the current state of the laws to have these "loopholes" or are you just saying that Activision Blizzard hasn't done so. If you're saying the latter, maybe you should edit the post I responded to…

You're right. I'm sure there are many such companies, I just seriously doubt Activision Blizzard in particular is one of them. E: I edited my prior comment.

I love hacker news. The only place you see this on the internet.
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