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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

#251

Post by FlowNote »

jedberg wrote: post #241
vertig0h wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Especially considering all the other political reprisals and pardons that are in the news" What news are you talking about? Whatever news you're watching is only giving you one perspective on events, so this "observation" is not helpful on its own. The rest of your comment is similarly rooted in assumptions and speculation borne out of a hostile media's interpretation of recent events, so the conclusions you're rea…

The media is supposed to be hostile. They are always hostile to the administration. It is their job as one of the checks on power enshrined in the constitution. Why do you think freedom of the press is in Amendment one?

Is that why Obama went 8 years without ending a single war?

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#252

Post by throwawaymanbot »

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…

Agree 100%.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#253

Post by vertig0h »

ejstronge wrote: post #245
vertig0h wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congress' unprecedented barrage of subpoenas force the administration's hand here. You may find it "absurd", but unprecedented animus requires unprecedented defensive measures.

> Congress' unprecedented barrage of subpoenas force the administration's hand here. You may find it "absurd", but unprecedented animus requires unprecedented defensive measures. Not sure where in the Constitution this appears...

The administration's use of legal defensive measures is not itself illegal or prohibited by the Constitution.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#254

Post by jellicle »

jakemal wrote: post #161
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…

Does the US administration have the authority over the IRS to file and pull the suits at their will?

Yes. The commissioner of the IRS is appointed by the President (current one appointed by Trump) and can be dismissed at any time without cause. So if you want to continue in that role, you will do what the President wishes. You can always resign if you find the instructions not to your liking, of course.

Richard Nixon demanded that the IRS investigate his enemies, but the IRS commissioner at the time refused to do so and eventually testified against Nixon on this issue.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#255

Post by vertig0h »

jedberg wrote: post #241
vertig0h wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Especially considering all the other political reprisals and pardons that are in the news" What news are you talking about? Whatever news you're watching is only giving you one perspective on events, so this "observation" is not helpful on its own. The rest of your comment is similarly rooted in assumptions and speculation borne out of a hostile media's interpretation of recent events, so the conclusions you're rea…

The media is supposed to be hostile. They are always hostile to the administration. It is their job as one of the checks on power enshrined in the constitution. Why do you think freedom of the press is in Amendment one?

That's not always the case. The mainstream media - both the news media and entertainment media more broadly - was extremely accommodative and deferential to the Obama administration largely because he was on the mainstream media's political "side".

Given this, many actions taken by the Obama administration that would have dominated the news cycle as impeachment-worthy if taken by the Trump administration were simply ignored or brushed aside by the Obama administration's media allies.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#256

Post by 6510 »

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…

If any company does it they all must do it. Punishment has to start some place.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#258

Post by andrewprock »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #154
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…

> including the likes of Halliburton Halliburton uses a different scheme. Its assets are physically offshore, though there are R&D and depreciation shenanigans (buy out of American profits, depreciate against onshore expenses, and tax the production where it happens). Facebook, on the other hand, claims most of its assets, which are principally intangible, live in Ireland. Its American sub is charged massive licensin…

This literally sounds like apples and apples to me, unless you really think "cloud computing" occurs in space or something. If the servers are in Ireland, then their physical assets are offshore.

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#259

Post by iguy »

danenania wrote: post #229
Mirioron wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the million/billion/trillion dollar question: how much is a brand worth? Clearly it is worth something. Facebook can do the most inane thing, but if they put their brand on it then it will have some value. To me this is the flaw in corporate taxation. I don't think you can ever work around this as long as you allow free trade. It just makes sense to tax them in other ways instead and perhaps simply get rid of…

Could the US simply impose a tax on all corporate profits, including international profits, for any company with any sort of nexus or business activity in the US? US citizens are basically already treated this way as individuals. I imagine it would allow the rate to be drastically lower since the tax base would be so much larger. And while megacorps would obviously grumble, it would still be a profitable decision to…

If I understand right, US citizens only owe income tax if what they already paid is less than the US rate. (Edit: "IRS Form 1116. If your income was taxed by a foreign country, you can subtract that tax from your US tax")

If something similar were applied to the tax on corporate profits, then it would not change much, as the US rate (21% I think) is pretty low by world standards. But there are exceptions, like Ireland (6-12%, IIRC).

But isn't the Irish company a different entity anyway? How far down the chain of ownership / authorized-importer-relationship would such a rule go?

Re: Facebook tax court trial begins over Ireland offshore deal

#260

Post by ForHackernews »

sixhobbits wrote: post #137

People looking at their personal income tax return: Woah, this is more complicated than I expected - should probably pay a professional accountant to sort this out for me People reading news articles like this: Look at these stupid professionals arguing about how international tax law in the $XB range when one side is so obviously wrong, and the correct outcome is really straight forward.

I'm sure Facebook just got confused and didn't look at the details to realize that it didn't make sense for the lion's share of their profits worldwide to come from Ireland.

I mean, it's well known that there are leprechauns with massive pots of gold in Ireland, so it's easy to assume they might be an extremely lucrative market for targeted ads for rainbow-dissipaters. If not for the complicated tax code, I'm sure they'd have happily paid more tax.

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