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Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

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Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

#61

Post by b112 »

tomrod wrote: post #42
b112 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

See my reply to my original post.

Tax rate changes are well known, but here's an example. Click on 'max' for a decades long look.

https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/corporate-tax-rate

In terms of 'real world' wages not improving, that's a somewhat arbitrary term. If you mean 'pre-tax', wages HAVE improved over time pre-tax. We're talking over 50+ years here.

'post-tax', they did improve, but that was before the great exodus of manufacturing overseas. Since that time, since 'free trade' was a 'good thing', they have fallen steadily.

Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

#63

Post by verbify »

nvarsj wrote: post #37
varispeed wrote: post #12

This 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…

In pretty much every western European country your tax rates can easily hit 60%+ (like the 100k 60% cliff in the UK). The budgets of these governments are all largely funded on the backs of middle class income tax - 40% of all receipts in the UK, plus another 10-15% from VAT - compared to a lowly 9% from corporation tax [1]. You have to wonder how the economy can ever evolve given everything is geared towards suppres…

The 60% effective tax rate is only on earnings between 100k and 125k, and only because of the loss of certain tax benefits. After 125k it drops back to 40%. It's really silly that it exists, but isn't representative of UK tax rates, it is just a weird side effect of the loss of the personal allowance.

And I reckon most earning between 100k and 125k would avoid that 60% by contributing to their pension, so I don't think many are affected by it.

Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

#64

Post by tomcam »

villgax wrote: post #30

Can people band together & save money doing the exact same thing?

They could, by investing in a business. Like Netflix they would reap the rewards of the tax code, which means they would be taking on the same risks.

A less risky version of this is stock ownership, or buying an index. Because it’s less risky, potential rewards are lower.

Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

#65

Post by listenallyall »

chickenmonkey wrote: post #17
listenallyall wrote: post #8

People love to vote for politicians who promise massive, but vague, tax credits for green energy, for worker education programs, for locating in "opportunity zones," for making capital investments, all kinds of stuff ... and then they love to be outraged when companies actually do those things and eliminate the majority of their tax bill.

Is your concern about the vagueness of the proposed plans or the outrage at tax bills?

My concern is that Americans consistently support and vote for bills and tax laws that ultimately work against most regular people (of which I am a member), because politicians use words like "green energy" and "get Americans back to work", etc. Sometimes politicians even pay $1400 per person so people won't question the rest of the bill. What are you concerned about?

Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

#66

Post by spacemanmatt »

crispyambulance wrote: post #15

It 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

Strong disagree.

Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

#67

Post by 3pt14159 »

varispeed wrote: post #12

This 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…

> if you want to save for a deposit to buy a house, spend time on education and getting a better job, you'll get hit by much higher tax and it will take ages to save anything.

I actually disagree. The issue isn't the tax rate, the issue is the arms races we have embedded all over our economy. Take housing, for example. No matter what you put as your tax rate the people in the region are going to compete for the limited amount of housing stock. The same is true for premier universities or top medical care. These arms races in our economies are eating up all the real productivity gains we've made in physical goods. If you compare the cost of a small home across time in something physical like eggs the cost has absolutely sky rocketed and it has nothing to do with tax. There are certain sectors of the economy that the market can't produce more of efficiently, like housing.

Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

#68

Post by b112 »

b112 wrote: post #61
tomrod wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flaw in argumemt: real wages not improving for several decades. Can you please provide sources where corporations were the primary tax vehicle?

See my reply to my original post. Tax rate changes are well known, but here's an example. Click on 'max' for a decades long look. https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/corporate-tax-rate In terms of 'real world' wages not improving, that's a somewhat arbitrary term. If you mean 'pre-tax', wages HAVE improved over time pre-tax. We're talking over 50+ years here. 'post-tax', they did improve, but that was before the grea…

Further to this ; in Canada, we have to constantly, and directly, worry about the US corporate tax rate. If it drops too low, compared to our tax rate? Companies can VERY easily flee to the US, and with the FTA/NAFTA/whatever it's called now?

No issues with product across the border.

So even though many Canadians are in favour of a higher corporate tax rate, it would literally be deadly. We must compete, we must race to the bottom, else corporations will move South.

Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

#69

Post by mjthompson »

crispyambulance wrote: post #15

It 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…

Corporations enjoy signficant benefits of being in the state, including, for example, a police force that protects them from attack, and a legal system that will resolve disputes they have both internally and with others.

They should pay reasonable (not low) taxes in any event, not subject to the caveat you identify.

Re: Netflix Made Record Profits in 2020, Paid a Tax Rate of Less Than 1 Percent

#70

Post by AzzieElbab »

crispyambulance wrote: post #15

It 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…

I agree, what is going on is legalized corruption. Tax rates are too high, so no one is paying while lawmakers are getting compensated (in one form or another) for introducing and maintaining tax loopholes
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