Good old Guardian. Always first with the hypocrisy. https://www.rt.com/uk/401323-guardian-newspaper-tax-avoidanc...
Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
351–360 of 467 posts
Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
#352Earlier 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…
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
Yup, it’s easier to just look at total tax revenue as a percent of GDP.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rev...
It’s not perfect as not all taxes are borne by the individual, but it’s gives you a ball park.
Netherlands 39%
Switzerland 29%
Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
#353Take 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…
One company’s single year profit is three quarters of GDP of a nation of 5 million people!!! With that much economic power, it is no wonder these multinationals write the rules as they please
Makes you wonder when we'll get back to the point they have their own militaries
Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are already incentivized to do that in the current system. How does removing corporate tax make that any different?
By removing the audit of the corporations.
No need to cook the books if the government already gave you everything that you'd otherwise have to lie to obtain!
Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
#355There shouldn’t be „corporate taxes“. They tend to be difficult to collect, troublesome to declare and actually can not contribute much to national budgets. Think about it: Employees of multinational companies pay billions of income tax. Customers buying products and services from multinational pay billions in VAT. Shareholders of multinationals receiving dividends pay billions of capital gains tax. So what exactly i…
Well it all depends on your ideas about taxation, society and the role of government. It is true that huge corporations already "give back" a lot of the money they collected under various forms (income tax, VAT, etc.) But if you think that the role of government is necessary, then you agree that it should collect taxe to exercise this role. And money is taken where money is. We tax corporations because they make bene…
> Ultimately there is no proper justification for any tax, except its necessity to let society fonction properly.
But a tax law should adhere to the same standard of quality as other sections of the law. Under the rule of law I -- for one -- expect tax laws at least not to be arbitrary. Just the fact there is money on the table does not entitle the society to grab it.
Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
#356Why 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 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.
$100 -> corp. $90 -> expenses, $10 -> profit. $4 -> corp tax, $6 -> shareholders dist.
$100 -> corp. $90 -> expenses, $10 -> profit -> shareholders dist. $4 -> personal income tax.
In principal it's the same. Path 1 is easier to dodge, because what constitutes "expenses" is hard to define, but distributions are obvious. And the numbers don't have to add to 100. So reality looks more like:
$100 -> corp. $95 -> "expenses", $5 -> "profit". $2 -> corp tax, $8 -> shareholders dist.
vs
$100 -> corp. $95 -> "expenses", $5 -> "profit". $10 shareholders dist. $4 -> personal income tax.
And this is why you want to tax at the distribution level.
Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
Income tax is not the only tax one pays. Every penny one spends, saves and withdraws is taxed. It may add up to more than 50% in some instances.
The thread is specifically about income taxes. Everyone always wants to act like $0.75 of every dollar they make goes to The Man but it's just not true. Most of the money you make, you keep, to spend on your needs and wants. People making a quarter million a year whinging about income taxes is offensive by its own right, but it becomes even more so when they arbitrarily double the amount actually paid to try to prove…
Companies pay, behind the scenes, another chunk of payroll tax that is roughly equal to what the employee pays. It doesn’t make the total 50%, but the taxes paid on your salary are higher than just 25%, even if it doesn’t show up on your paystub.
Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, the current corporate tax laws basically punish single-nation companies, while giving multinationals a free pass. International tax laws desperately need an overhaul.
Better yet, dump corporate tax altogether and simply enforce a global flat tax on all forms of personal income, both capital gains and salary. The amount of human time and energy wasted on taxation is mind bogglingly stupid. Politicians trying to influence the behavior of their minions by designing these convoluted "tax-based incentive" schemes is the whole problem in the first place. Just tax all money that comes in…
> simply enforce a global flat tax
Enforced by whom?
Why would a developing country want to tax companies at the same level if they're trying to attract investments? Anyway, why should any country listen to any other country on what the tax rate should be?
Why should a company be forced to pay tax on foreign income if the country in which they supposedly made that income doesn't want to them to pay taxes?
The worst part is that this comment starts with "simply enforce"
Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
Income tax is not the only tax one pays. Every penny one spends, saves and withdraws is taxed. It may add up to more than 50% in some instances.
The thread is specifically about income taxes. Everyone always wants to act like $0.75 of every dollar they make goes to The Man but it's just not true. Most of the money you make, you keep, to spend on your needs and wants. People making a quarter million a year whinging about income taxes is offensive by its own right, but it becomes even more so when they arbitrarily double the amount actually paid to try to prove…
I am not saying you are wrong; just providing another perspective. When every penny you *spend* or *save* is taxed, you end up paying more than 50% of what you made to The Man. Either tax the income or tax the spending, not both, is my argument.
Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year
#360Take 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…
It will trickle down one day. You just have to wait for it.
Warning, the trickle may smell like urine. Don’t look up.