Less money to the govt. the better. I think they have good auditors.
Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
41–50 of 404 posts
Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
#42This is crazy how economy is tilted in favour of these big corporations. If you are a worker, it is not uncommon to pay over 40% of tax and if you work on your own small business you can pay even more and have very little left to reinvest. Then you have progressive tax that is preventing you from saving much - if you want to save for a deposit to buy a house, spend time on education and getting a better job, you'll g…
Yes, but... Decades and decades ago, corporations paid most of the tax. People paid very little. Then things shifted. Instead of taxing corporations, people were taxed. Said people, with less money in their pocket, required raises. And so, over time, tax shifted from corporate to personal, but with people in the end taking home approximately as much as they had before. For example, you have $60k pretax, $50k take hom…
Flaw in argumemt: real wages not improving for several decades. Can you please provide sources where corporations were the primary tax vehicle?
Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you are a worker, it is not uncommon to pay over 40% of tax and if you work on your own small business you can pay even more and have very little left to reinvest. Not true according to this: https://files.taxfoundation.org/20200225094221/FF697-01.png https://taxfoundation.org/summary-of-the-latest-federal-inco...
I am writing from European perspective, I should add that. However I read that in some states it is quite similar.
The linked article is referencing federal income tax in the US.
If state and other local taxes need to be factored in, the situation becomes much more complex and almost impossible to compare.
Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
#44How much did their employees pay? Including all the actors who worked on the shows they funded.
Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
#45Carry loss forward....again? No! Exciting it something different. Looks like depreciation (those bastards!) and R&D tax credits. How devious! Maybe reporters should get an accounting primer before writing articles about taxes?
It's not even just about taxes. Economists largely agree generally low corporation tax is good for everyone.
> Maybe reporters should get an accounting primer before writing articles about taxes?
That will just make them feel bad when they choose the clickbait anyway.
HN is a semi-rarefied atmosphere and even these comments are mostly ignorant rabble. No way the journalists are giving up the sensational headlines for a general audience. Engagement gold dust.
Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
#46Is that calculation really correct? Does it count tax for all the employees? Does it count all specialized tax for things like gas or VAT, for all the things Netflix buys in their operation? What about all the media that Netflix buys and produces? What about all the taxes levied there on salaries and other activities? The article also talks about "income" and not "revenue"...
The numbers don't make sense to me. Their annual report [0] says pre-tax income of $2 billion, not $2.8 billion (p41). Even if you disallow deducting interest expense and use operating income, that's still only $2.6 billion. Meanwhile, they're paying $400 million in taxes (p43). That looks a lot more like 20% to me than 1%. What am I missing?
[0] https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/N...
Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
#47This is crazy how economy is tilted in favour of these big corporations. If you are a worker, it is not uncommon to pay over 40% of tax and if you work on your own small business you can pay even more and have very little left to reinvest. Then you have progressive tax that is preventing you from saving much - if you want to save for a deposit to buy a house, spend time on education and getting a better job, you'll g…
> tax progression will be removed, so that people will have a chance of levelling up
Progressive taxation has the exact opposite function to what you're suggesting. It's a mechanism designed to reduce economic inequality and the poverty among the low income workers.
Your comment sounds like a rationalization from a middle/upper income person.
> it is not uncommon to pay over 40% of tax
That figure is misleading, because it includes a set of expenses like social security, health insurance, government pension plans etc. Corporations don't pay that and that's why the difference may seems so big.
But I too am quite unhappy with the way the whole taxation system is constructed. But I would go in the opposite direction to the one you described. More in the way to progressive taxation, even negative taxation for the very low income people, basic income.
I would also work a bit towards making corporation pay more for all their externalities.
Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
#48In theory they will be paying corporate taxes on profits abroad.
I assume they are dodging those taxes as well, but to take net global income and measure that against federal income tax in the US is a flawed calculation unless you are asking for double taxation.
Amazing scale though. It shows the power of cutting out middlemen when they are going direct to consumer without gatekeepers such as cable companies.
Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
#49It would be perfectly fine for corporations to pay comically low taxes--- IF they also had NO ability to fund large-scale lobbying operations and were not allowed to put unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns. That's NOT ever going to happen. But now is the best time for the tax part to change. The economy has been floated by unprecedented government pay-outs, narrowly avoiding a deep depression that wou…
>> It would be perfectly fine for corporations to pay comically low taxes
No it wouldn't
Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent
#50-> President Biden so far has not proposed to do away with these tax breaks, but he has proposed a second-best solution—requiring corporations to pay a minimum tax equal to 15 percent of profits they report to shareholders and to the public if this is less than what they pay under regular corporate tax rules. This would be a big improvement because it would finally require all corporations to contribute at least some…
how so?