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Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

reuters.com

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Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#141

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway_tech wrote: post #106
alehul wrote: post #92

To those mentioning that Facebook's revenue is $70b: their net income is only around ~$18b. This would be half of Facebook's net income for an entire year, which is substantial. It's a big deal to them.

It should be noted the unpaid taxes are from the period of 2010-2016. >“Facebook Ireland and Facebook’s other foreign affiliates - not Facebook US - led the high-risk, and ultimately successful, international effort to sell Facebook ads,” the company said in a pre-trial memorandum. What a fraud.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#142

Post by dcolkitt »

bilekas wrote: post #89
rdlecler1 wrote: post #86

These tax dodges are corporate shenanigans, and to me it’s no different than tax evasion.

But if you as a citizen owe 1000USD, you'll be pursued more. Its completely messed up, but that's the current rules of the system. Without going into politics, they play by the stretched rules.

The chance of an ordinary middle class person being audited by the IRS is extremely low. The enforcement division is severely understaffed, and pretty much only works on computers pattern matching clearly egregious returns.

A large proportion of the US population commits some sort of low level tax evasion- unreported income, deductions that never happened, personal expenses as business deductions, claiming dependents, etc. The vast majority will never see any enforcement whatsoever. By contrast the returns of a major corporation like Facebook are held up to an extreme degree of scrutiny.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#143

Post by rtkwe »

throwaway55554 wrote: post #122
iooi wrote: post #110

Doesn't almost every multinational use this arrangement, commonly known as the Double Irish? Why is Facebook getting called out specifically? Surprised the article doesn't mention this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement#Multi...

> Why is Facebook getting called out specifically? As opposed to rounding them all up at the same time? Maybe it's just easier to go after one at a time?

Yeah the IRS budget has been intentionally slashed over the years to make their job enforcing the tax code harder. It's part of why they go after low return audits on low or middle income people so much more than against corporations and the rich, rich people and corporations have the money to hire lawyers to draw out cases where poorer people don't so auditing 10 Etna's is 100x easier than going after a company with a complicated tax evasion scheme.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#144

Post by znpy »

riazrizvi wrote: post #119

Surely this is more about political coercion than tax? Amongst all US companies that offshore profits, including the likes of Halliburton, Facebook has been singled out because the US administration wants the company to do it's bidding regarding policy and algorithms for political advertising? Especially considering all the other political reprisals and pardons that are in the news, following the impeachment acquitta…

> Surely this is more about political coercion than tax?

What's the difference? It good anyway for the US because it would set an important precedent for future litigation on the matter of profit offshoring.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#145

Post by caconym_ »

iooi wrote: post #110

Doesn't almost every multinational use this arrangement, commonly known as the Double Irish? Why is Facebook getting called out specifically? Surprised the article doesn't mention this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement#Multi...

Regardless of any particular politics, they seem like a politically expedient target. Everybody hates them (while using their products, which is funny), and they aren't a big government contractor.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#146

Post by isoskeles »

alehul wrote: post #92

To those mentioning that Facebook's revenue is $70b: their net income is only around ~$18b. This would be half of Facebook's net income for an entire year, which is substantial. It's a big deal to them.

To those mentioning Facebook's income is only around ~$18b, they're sitting on ~$55b in cash and short-term investments.

If they had to, they could scrounge up the $9b.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#147

Post by [deleted] »

linuxftw wrote: post #133
riazrizvi wrote: post #119

Surely this is more about political coercion than tax? Amongst all US companies that offshore profits, including the likes of Halliburton, Facebook has been singled out because the US administration wants the company to do it's bidding regarding policy and algorithms for political advertising? Especially considering all the other political reprisals and pardons that are in the news, following the impeachment acquitta…

> US administration wants the company to do it's bidding regarding policy and algorithms for political advertising? Unfounded conspiracy theory? Just because they haven't gone after other companies, doesn't mean they shouldn't go after Facebook. They might believe the other companies are guilty but don't have enough evidence to win the trial. Facebook is clearly a US company. Founded and HQ'd in the US, so they shoul…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#148

Post by amylene »

cheez wrote: post #115
gruez wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But if you as a citizen owe 1000USD, you'll be pursued more. Is the IRS really auditing people over $1000 in taxes (under $4000 of revenue/income)?

My experience with tax collectors is that they pursue those owing between 10K-500K intensely. Once it gets into 7-8 figures, you can VERY easily pay proportionately less than the poor suckers caught in the 10-500K net.

Just curious, how have you come by this experience? Does the irs release full audit rates?

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#149

Post by claudeganon »

iooi wrote: post #110

Doesn't almost every multinational use this arrangement, commonly known as the Double Irish? Why is Facebook getting called out specifically? Surprised the article doesn't mention this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement#Multi...

You’re right. We should do this to all of them until they stop.
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