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

theguardian.com

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

#141

Post by yunohn »

rorykoehler wrote: post #134
yunohn wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Netherlands is a tax haven for corporations. Individuals bear the brunt of ensuring a high QoL. Median income in 2021 is €36.500, so quite low tbh. The only kind of income you can avoid taxes on is capital gains - i.e. investing in stocks or real estate. Obviously this is not feasible for the general population, and as such, most people spend their entire monthly income on rent/mortgage, kids, and living expenses…

I have known many Dutch people over the years who have gotten a lot of benefits from the state from unemployment to housing. Some of it clearly fraudulently too. Seems to be unsustainable.

While I do not condone benefits fraud, it’s just a drop in the pond.

Government projects are quite corrupt, and often go way over budget. Of course, this is a global problem as well.

The main problem is corporate tax evasion. Pretty much every multinational funnels money via NL, while paying almost nothing.

For example - IKEA, Walt Disney, FAANG, Uber, and innumerable more are all Dutch BVs for most global activities.

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

#142

Post by jgalt212 »

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.

don't worry, Biden will fix that. Soon you'll be paying 30% and then 20-40%.

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

#143

Post by rorykoehler »

jefftk wrote: post #101
juandazapata wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on this? How would this work?

The idea is that the government prints money to cover expenses. If you could somehow force everyone to hold all their wealth in cash, this would act as a wealth tax. This doesn't work, however, because with very high planned inflation no one wants to use your currency, and without taxation there's no reason they have to.

They use your currency because they get paid in it. Government spending doesn't disappear into a black hole never to be seen again. [FALSE]>>> Also it's illegal to use other currencies as tender in (probably?) all countries in the world (Zimbabwe uses/used(?) the US dollar but I'm not aware of any other instances).

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

#144

Post by helsinkiandrew »

sbennettmcleish wrote: post #7

220bn profit? Really? Surely they mean "revenue"

Turnover was $13.606B and operating profit was $13.604B

From the financial report "Profit after tax increased .. to $314.73Bn reflecting gains made upon liquidation of two subsidiaries".

I'm guessing this is a company that exists to receive licensing fees from around the world and the profit just about equals revenue apart from cost of the accountants.

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

#145

Post by johnday »

willcipriano wrote: post #123
johnday wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If taxation is such an inherent good then why does it need to be hidden from people? Because the externalities are not always visible, and people do not have enough free bandwidth to spend the time understanding them.

Call me old fashioned, but I believe it is the role of the person being paid to justify the expense. If you get hand wavy and tell me its too complicated I'm just going to presume you are stealing from me.

The Government is not "being paid" tax dollars[^0], it is (in principle, at least) spending and redistributing wealth in ways which benefit all citizens. UKGov releases these reports, for example https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-statistic... - good luck condensing these down to the point where they can fit in any taxpayer's head, and this is just the surface level outgoings.

> If you get hand wavy and tell me its too complicated [...]

Unfortunately, it really is too complicated. A doctorate in economics might get you a decent way towards understanding the good that taxation provides, but given that economists still have differences of opinion, maybe not a complete understanding.

[^0]: Well it is, but only a tiny proportion.

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

#146

Post by yunohn »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #138
yunohn wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare is paid from post-tax income. As a single person, I pay approx. €150 monthly. There is also a deductible of €385-885, and choosing a lower amount means you pay more per month too. There is no tax free allowance. There is general/labor tax credit, but it’s incredibly minimal and reduces with income: * €2.837 for those with a taxable income under €21.043 * €2.837 - 5,977% x (taxable income - €21.043) for peo…

€150/month for healthcare? Ya, that could work lost tax. Switzerland also pays for health insurance premiums post tax, but they are nowhere that cheap.

How much would you pay as a single person? And what does it cover? If you have a family, premiums increase significantly.

In NL, €150 doesn’t cover emergency care, dental, eyes, or various specialists. Medicines and treatments are also part of the deductible.

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

#147

Post by frockington1 »

tootahe45 wrote: post #13
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.

Don't forget your cap gains and consumption taxes

And death tax. And property tax for good measure

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

#148

Post by um_ya »

callamdelaney wrote: post #79
waterglassFull wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are fortunate enough to be in a position where you're earning enough to pay 40% tax then great for you! Paying tax is good for society, what's not great is companies avoiding it. The latter doesn't negate the former.

Oh, it's great that it's great society. Sucks pretty hard for him though.

"Pay your fair share".

I cringe every time I hear this from people.

Rich people pay WAY more than what they get back from the gov.

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

#149

Post by seanmcdirmid »

lukasm wrote: post #127
dkyc wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, this setup would be extremely beneficial to gigantic companies and likely would lead to immense consolidation, since effectively you would tax 1% on every supplier transaction down the chain, whereas the vertically integrated gigacompany would only pay 1% once.

nope this tax scheme would only apply to certain corporations e.g. Revenue 0-20mln EUR, you keep the existing tax scheme Revenue 20-100mln - you can choose the tax scheme Revenue 100mln+ - you have to tax revenue Thresholds are up for debate. Also, companies already pay around 0-5% of their revenue in income tax. Gigantic companies pay close to 0.

> Revenue 100mln+ - you have to tax revenue

So banks and oil companies, which are naturally lots of revenue with a tiny amount of profit, would disappear, or become very small?

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

#150

Post by Cthulhu_ »

malux85 wrote: post #2

I have to pay 40% of my income as income tax. I have HAD ENOUGH. This is infuriating. What can we do?

Vote for politicians that want to tax the rich. I mean this can be solved by forcing Bermuda to charge taxes for example. If they REALLY want to escalate things, Bermuda can be strongarmed into compliance - a country can put a boycott on Bermuda, like the US does with e.g. Iran and NK at the moment. Any company doing business with Bermuda then - directly or indirectly - will be in a lot of trouble.

But they don't dare to take a firm stance, because the politicians that make the decisions benefit from the system. Just look at how many politicians had accounts revealed via the Panama Papers.

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