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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

#181

Post by rorykoehler »

yunohn wrote: post #169
rorykoehler wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry I agree with you. I didn't mean fraud was a big cost, only that social spending (including non-fraudulent) seems to be very high and not tightly controlled (which as a side effect allows for easy fraud). From the outside society seems very stratified. Plenty of Telsa's in Amsterdam and people with expensive tastes. NL is obviously a very wealthy place even compared to neighbouring countries but also has a large…

Social spending is quite high, but I’d like to believe that atleast it’s enriching the average person and not only corporate execs. The reason there’s so many Teslas is because up until 2021, you could get significant tax benefits, if you purchased an electric car via your employer for “work”. If you look past Teslas, you’ll see that most people own average family cars. Amsterdam does have people with “expensive tast…

>you could get significant tax benefits

This is a significant piece of information in this discussion.

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

#182

Post by new_here »

Take a moment to comprehend those numbers:

FY18/19 - under $10bn profit

FY19/20 - $314.7bn profit (3/4 of Ireland's GDP) and paid no tax on it.

> The subsidiary, which collects licence fees for use of copyrighted Microsoft software around the world, recorded an annual profit of $314.7bn in the year to the end of June 2020, according to accounts filed at the Irish Companies Registration Office. Its profits jumped from just under $10bn the previous year and compare with Ireland’s 2020 GDP of €357bn ($437bn).

> Tax transparency campaigners described the “tax aggression displayed by Microsoft, and facilitated by Ireland” as “beyond belief”.

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

#183

Post by gruez »

EMM_386 wrote: post #164

What is the solution to this? I've wracked my brain and can't come up with anything. Companies will just continue to flee to whatever country is now offering 0%. Christmas Island has a new 0% corporate tax policy? Let's go buy a mailbox there and move our "headquarters". The old-school thinking is that low corporate tax policies encourage business, creating jobs in the process and boosting that country's economy. In…

>The only thing I can think is that this entire thing has to be flipped into some sort of "VAT"/usage situation.

Then it's a consumption tax (aka sales tax), which we already have and is generally regressive.

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

#185

Post by dkirill »

neilwilson wrote: post #25
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.

The best tax is one that is imposed on an individual but paid at source by the corporation paying them. Individuals shouldn't see tax. That way the voters don't complain when you need to put it up. Sales tax is similarly a pain - particularly when you have differing rates. At which point we get into the famous is it a cake or a biscuit type cases to decide where the dividing line is.

I strongly disagree with that idea. Voters must know exactly how much they are paying for something for them to care about efficiency of government spendings. What you are proposing is how things currently work in Russia and trust me you don't want that

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

#186

Post by throwaway0a5e »

rorykoehler wrote: post #115
fxtentacle wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Add a UBI and it would work. There needs to be an economic floor which ensures there is no destitution. The aim isn't to get rid of wealth. The system now isn't working because wealthy people are securing their income and wealth without paying tax at the expense of social and civil programs.

Assuming the UBI works out as intended and doesn't lead to unmanageable inflation the definition of destitution will just change to reflect the new floor.

How many 70s government housing project apartments or leaky rural shacks do you think you'd need to combine to get one working set of appliances and utilities that every section 8 apartment and double wide trailer has these days? (I'd put that number at 3-5). That was the floor then. That floor is mostly the subfloor now.

As things get better our standards get higher. Progress is good but you will never "solve" poverty, destitution, or any other bad thing that is defined relative to the rest of the population.

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

#188

Post by Lionga »

rorykoehler wrote: post #143
jefftk wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

People of Venezuela would like to have a word with you

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

#189

Post by Grustaf »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #174
teekert wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it would be so nice if a lot of small companies got organized and tried to do these tricks together, just to show the ridiculousness of it all.

You miss the part where small companies have to compete against each other so organizing together would be impossible whereas entities like Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Google, etc. are basically unregulated monopolies in their respective fields so they get to steer the ship as they please.

It wouldn't be impossible at all, you can of course cooperate with competitors to lower your taxes while competing for customers. Not that you necessarily need to band together with your competitors for this, there are plenty of companies out there.
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