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Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

reuters.com

31–40 of 333 posts

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#31
post #4

I truly wish that the corporate tax rate was 0. Not 25, not 15, but 0%. Then all of this ridiculous nonsense around crony capitalists lobbying for special tax breaks, “double Dutch Irish sandwiches”, and the insane discrepancies between big business and small business in regards to tax games would all go away. Just increase capital gains to match income tax and be done with all of this bullshit. Amazon pays an effect…

How would you avoid companies-as-expense accounts? If I form "Coral-Snake & Co.", wouldn't I be able to pay 0% taxes by just directing all income/expenses into that shell? (Granted, I don't understand basically anything about tax law, so maybe this is already a well-defined problem with a well-defined solution.)

[deleted]

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#32
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you avoid companies-as-expense accounts? If I form "Coral-Snake & Co.", wouldn't I be able to pay 0% taxes by just directing all income/expenses into that shell? (Granted, I don't understand basically anything about tax law, so maybe this is already a well-defined problem with a well-defined solution.)

This is already doable with a multitude of ways. If I have profits, and I direct them to a business, then argue plausibly that my life expenses (lunches, travel, cars, computers) are for my business, I can write off all those expenses against my profits. Business owners do this all the time.

Business owners that do that had better be very careful and keep plenty of documentation. There are legal "tests" (read requirements) that must be met for those lunches, travel, cars, computers, etc. to be considered an expense. In many cases, any "non-business" use/benefit/enjoyment renders the entire expense not a business expense. Yes, it is not so rare for small business owners to play loose with the rules. And then they get audited and end up paying a lot in back taxes.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#33
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make a good argument* that taxing corporations is weird anyway, since they're abstract legal concepts. Taxing the income real people get paid from the corporation would be the logical, and much simpler system. * You can of course also make a decent argument against this :)

Then you get companies leasing jets, houses, etc for employees uses instead of pay.

And there are already rules which are supposed to cause non-business use of jets, houses, etc to be personal taxable income.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#34
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make a good argument* that taxing corporations is weird anyway, since they're abstract legal concepts. Taxing the income real people get paid from the corporation would be the logical, and much simpler system. * You can of course also make a decent argument against this :)

Then you get companies leasing jets, houses, etc for employees uses instead of pay.

all that is properly considered income for the employee. of course, if the co. fails to report it, then it's a difficult matter to police.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#35
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a 100% reasonable policy, but it's a really hard sell for people who don't understand how business income actually works, and how the money would be captured by far more functional taxes as dividend income or cap gains. I don't think your comment is going to do well on HN. Maybe leave INCREASE CAPITAL GAINS in all caps. Or, CAPTURE THE SAME MONEY AS DIVIDEND INCOME OR CAPITAL GAINS. Perhaps: IT IS THE SAME MO…

Many of my comments do poorly on HN, but I’ll keep writing them because alternative opinions to the hive mind are valuable. I may even convince a few people!

You might want to try leaving better comments? The one at the top doesn't really make any sense. If you left one that did convince people, it would probably get upvoted.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#36
post #4

I truly wish that the corporate tax rate was 0. Not 25, not 15, but 0%. Then all of this ridiculous nonsense around crony capitalists lobbying for special tax breaks, “double Dutch Irish sandwiches”, and the insane discrepancies between big business and small business in regards to tax games would all go away. Just increase capital gains to match income tax and be done with all of this bullshit. Amazon pays an effect…

Just capture it all as sales tax when the money is coming and and income tax when it being distributed to employees. get rid of corporate tax for ANY business, small or large.

Unfortunately, that policy creates a perpetual motion machine.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#37
post #13

The headline is inaccurate - the IRS did not sue Facebook today. This was the first day of the trial. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2016 and widely discussed at that time. https://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-wants-facebooks-records-on-...

Discussed at the time on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12193216

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#38
post #30
post #4

I truly wish that the corporate tax rate was 0. Not 25, not 15, but 0%. Then all of this ridiculous nonsense around crony capitalists lobbying for special tax breaks, “double Dutch Irish sandwiches”, and the insane discrepancies between big business and small business in regards to tax games would all go away. Just increase capital gains to match income tax and be done with all of this bullshit. Amazon pays an effect…

There should also be no speed limits, since some people drive too fast anyway. And murder should also be legal, since some people murder anyway. Let’s just remove all laws, since they’ve all been broken at some time.

That's nonsensical and not even close to what was being said.

Taxes are not a moral issue nor do they have a victim. The proposal isn't to eliminate them entirely, only to remove corporate income tax and make it up in other changes for a net win for the economy, and it's perfectly reasonable to discuss.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#39
post #30
post #4

I truly wish that the corporate tax rate was 0. Not 25, not 15, but 0%. Then all of this ridiculous nonsense around crony capitalists lobbying for special tax breaks, “double Dutch Irish sandwiches”, and the insane discrepancies between big business and small business in regards to tax games would all go away. Just increase capital gains to match income tax and be done with all of this bullshit. Amazon pays an effect…

There should also be no speed limits, since some people drive too fast anyway. And murder should also be legal, since some people murder anyway. Let’s just remove all laws, since they’ve all been broken at some time.

Your argument is totally irrelevant to corporate tax rates. I’m not advocating for legalizing murder, stop being ridiculous.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#40
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of my comments do poorly on HN, but I’ll keep writing them because alternative opinions to the hive mind are valuable. I may even convince a few people!

You might want to try leaving better comments? The one at the top doesn't really make any sense. If you left one that did convince people, it would probably get upvoted.

Given all the other comments it sounds like many people agree with me. What part didn’t you understand?
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