Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 467 posts

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#91

Post by rorykoehler »

yunohn wrote: post #88
rorykoehler wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one pays that much in a progressive tax system. Every time this discussion comes up people spout off these numbers but if you calculate out how much you actually pay it's probably in the 20-30% of total salary range. That's still high but it's just dishonest and makes people look like idiots when they throw around 40% etc. If you are truly paying 40% of your income in tax you are earning millions and are benefitin…

I pay easily 40%+ effective tax on my income in NL. Not sure why you’re so dismissive of the poster.

Congrats you are earning a lot. You should be grateful to be in such a privileged position few can dream of.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#92

Post by fxtentacle »

rorykoehler wrote: post #65

We should stop all taxation and use inflation to pay for everything instead. Much simpler and no one can get out of it.

Won't work because all truly wealthy people can secure their wealth against inflation, while poor people cannot.

As a simple example, consider owning a house vs. renting. If you own the house, the actual number doesn't matter. If you're renting, the ratio between rent and salary is highly critical for your lifestyle.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#93

Post by I_am_tiberius »

zapdrive wrote: post #27
fallingknife wrote: post #12

Why can't governments learn that taxing corporations is pointless? The same revenue is can be raised more simply through sales tax and personal income tax on salaries and distributions.

Try saying this on leftist websites like reddit. They believe taxing corporations is the solution to all world problems.

I guess this is related to the age of the Reddit's users.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#95

Post by yunohn »

rorykoehler wrote: post #91
yunohn wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pay easily 40%+ effective tax on my income in NL. Not sure why you’re so dismissive of the poster.

Congrats you are earning a lot. You should be grateful to be in such a privileged position few can dream of.

Not really, I wish I were. Here’s the NL tax brackets:

* € 0 - 68.508 37,10%

* € 68.508+ 49,50%

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#96

Post by rorykoehler »

juandazapata wrote: post #82
rorykoehler wrote: post #65

We should stop all taxation and use inflation to pay for everything instead. Much simpler and no one can get out of it.

Can you expand on this? How would this work?

Government sets an annual budget and then creates the money to pay for it out of thin air every year.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#97

Post by pydry »

roenxi wrote: post #70
breakfastduck wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The revenue is only the same because we dont actually collect corporation tax because we let people avoid it. To act like there's no additional benefit on taxing literally billions in revenue is absolutely nonsensical.

Say you redirect $100 million away from Microsoft's research into artificial intelligence and redirect it to a government project promoting artificial intelligence research + junkets for government employees. It is certainly plausible that a tax will provide no additional benefit. Microsoft is one of the great value creators of the late 20th/early 21st century. it is not immediately obvious why redirecting money away…

It's interesting that you said redirect $100 million away from Microsoft's research (cost) rather than Microsoft's shareholders pockets.

Were you deliberately or accidentally confusing the two?

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#98

Post by menzoic »

kowlo wrote: post #5

Meanwhile my (single-person) company is paying around 20% corporation tax, and then I'm getting taxed a further 20-40% on top of that when I pay myself.

Which country is your corp registered in? In U.S. you can register and S. Corp to avoid being double taxed.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#99

Post by adflux »

rorykoehler wrote: post #75
jbverschoor wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There you pay 40-50% incometax first

No one pays that much in a progressive tax system. Every time this discussion comes up people spout off these numbers but if you calculate out how much you actually pay it's probably in the 20-30% of total salary range. That's still high but it's just dishonest and makes people look like idiots when they throw around 40% etc. If you are truly paying 40% of your income in tax you are earning millions and are benefitin…

What a load of horseshit, just take a look at a bunch of western european countries.

https://taxfoundation.org/taxing-high-income-2019/

Then there's a 21% sales tax for everything but food and medicine in the Netherlands aswell

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#100

Post by oblio »

breakfastduck wrote: post #6
tonfa wrote: post #4

Isn't the US levying corporate tax on worlwide income anyway (since the last tax reform). So it's "only" a matter of deciding whether those taxes should be paid in US vs. other countries (and if the intellectual property was developped mostly in the US, it seems fair for the US to get most of it).

That isn't fair at all. If you're opening a location in another country, and that location takes X in revenue, the tax should be paid in that country. Why on earth do you think its fair for US based organizations to spread across the globe, reap the huge profits from that but funnel all the cash back into the US?

> Why on earth do you think its fair for US based organizations to spread across the globe, reap the huge profits from that but funnel all the cash back into the US

Random guess, they're American :-)

Facebook, Google & co. are absolutely ravaging local economies, pardon me, disrupting legacy economies all over the world and a small chunk of that ends up as compensation in the US.

The rest of that, FAANG are just sitting on it like a dragon hoarding gold, as far as I can see.

Post reply on HN