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How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

economist.com

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Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#31

Post by Evgeny »

forgottenpaswrd wrote: post #13

"FEW tasks are more exasperating than trying to assemble flat-pack furniture from IKEA" Am I the only one that enjoy assembling flat-pack furniture and believe it is extremely easy?.

The only problem is when I'm on my own, but the item is too large to handle it by myself comfortably (i.e. a bed or similar).

Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#32

Post by davidw »

hugh3 wrote: post #16
davidw wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This whole thread is EXHIBIT A of why there should be no politics here.

And the fact that this comment was modded up to eight "Waaaaah, your ideology makes me sick" is a sign that things have gone way off the rails. I'm gonna set my noprocrast to 87000 minutes now and come back in two months.

People's ideologies do make other people angry though. Which is why they should be aired on other sites.

Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#33

Post by dagw »

forgottenpaswrd wrote: post #13

"FEW tasks are more exasperating than trying to assemble flat-pack furniture from IKEA" Am I the only one that enjoy assembling flat-pack furniture and believe it is extremely easy?.

I've bought some flat-pack furniture from some of IKEA's competitors. After having struggled through putting that together I have to say I have new found respect for the amount of thought and design IKEA must put into how their furniture goes together.

Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#34

Post by toadi »

They should come to Belgium. We have something called 'notionele interest aftrek' (http://www.kpmg.com/BE/en/Whatwedo/Interests/NotionalInteres...).

As an example:

Suez Tractebel, Energy Europe Invest en GDF Suez CC had a profit before tax : 4,8 bilion euro.

Together they payed 2,3 milion euro tax. This is a tax rate of 0,049%.

Oh these are the Gas & electricity companies in Belgium.

Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#35

Post by pacifika »

jimmybot wrote: post #27

What's terrible about IKEA's whole tax avoidance scheme is that it gives an unfair advantage to IKEA over Target, Walmart, etc. who are all presumably paying expected amounts of corporate tax and additionally, by virtue of being public companies, provide a great amount of transparency versus IKEA. Another example of a business built in part on a tax loophole--Amazon.com and its online brethren whose customers general…

You think Target and Walmart do not avoid high taxes through clever tricks?

Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#36

Post by vitobcn »

This is a pretty common scenario for international companies. Maybe most of them do not go as far as IKEA and lock their whole corporate structure, but most of them manage to achieve pretty low corporate tax rates. As an example Google was estimated to achieve an effective tax rate of only 2.4% [1]

[1] Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-sho...

Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#37

Post by alastair »

pacifika wrote: post #35
jimmybot wrote: post #27

What's terrible about IKEA's whole tax avoidance scheme is that it gives an unfair advantage to IKEA over Target, Walmart, etc. who are all presumably paying expected amounts of corporate tax and additionally, by virtue of being public companies, provide a great amount of transparency versus IKEA. Another example of a business built in part on a tax loophole--Amazon.com and its online brethren whose customers general…

You think Target and Walmart do not avoid high taxes through clever tricks?

"Wal-Mart paid 34 cents in taxes for every dollar of profit it made in the past three years."

[http://wgbhradio.org/News/Articles/2011/1/29/For_Many_Compan...]

Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#38

Post by jimmybot »

pacifika wrote: post #35
jimmybot wrote: post #27

What's terrible about IKEA's whole tax avoidance scheme is that it gives an unfair advantage to IKEA over Target, Walmart, etc. who are all presumably paying expected amounts of corporate tax and additionally, by virtue of being public companies, provide a great amount of transparency versus IKEA. Another example of a business built in part on a tax loophole--Amazon.com and its online brethren whose customers general…

You think Target and Walmart do not avoid high taxes through clever tricks?

Magnitude, not true-false.

Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#39

Post by bertil »

forgottenpaswrd wrote: post #13

"FEW tasks are more exasperating than trying to assemble flat-pack furniture from IKEA" Am I the only one that enjoy assembling flat-pack furniture and believe it is extremely easy?.

Pandering much? This is Hacker news, you have to show how you assembled several packages in a creative way to get in. But, yeah: “outside” there is an alarming proportion of people who get upset for hours, failing at what I did blindfolded at 11.

Re: How IKEA is structured to minimize tax and maximize control

#40

Post by kalpeshjoshi »

jimmybot wrote: post #27

What's terrible about IKEA's whole tax avoidance scheme is that it gives an unfair advantage to IKEA over Target, Walmart, etc. who are all presumably paying expected amounts of corporate tax and additionally, by virtue of being public companies, provide a great amount of transparency versus IKEA. Another example of a business built in part on a tax loophole--Amazon.com and its online brethren whose customers general…

First, let's not forget that Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, for several reasons. But skimping on state and local tax regulation is something that Walmart has done over the years. Most states (not all cities tho) want a company like Walmart, it provides lots of jobs (we won't take about labor wages), and creates perpetual economic growth in a neighborhood / city / region through a whole ecosystem of consumers, employees, vendors, shippers, contractors, etc. To entice Walmart, states give tax subsidies, devalue property assessments, etc.

I'm not saying IKEA doesn't have the same retail financial prowess with state regulators, but let's be fair, many corporations do what they can to get tax loopholes. Accenture, a global consulting powerhouse was incorporated in Bermuda strictly to avoid paying taxes on billions of dollars.

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