and we were laughing at the mobster furious as his 4% percent in "The Firm"! Ultimately, he happens to be right as paying 4% instead of 2.4% seems to be a pretty valid reason to be furious...
How does Google pay 2.4%?
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Re: How does Google pay 2.4%?
#12There's a great slide from my "Taxes for Hax0rs" (SHDH 44) presentation http://www.transparentaccounting.org regarding the history of the Federal Income Tax. In a nutshell, the way it was originally written was meant to tax corporate income only and only the most wealthy Americans, not common folk. One needed to make >= $4000/year in deflated 1893 dollars to even be eligible to need to pay any taxes. Not sure, but on…
Ironically, corporate taxes these days generates less than 20% of the fiscal revenues for the government. Generally, 1040 individual taxes still make up the bulk of the taxes paid. In addition, more than 35% of all taxpayers pay zero tax or pay no tax and get refunds. This number is constantly changing, especially recently with the economy. I've seen it go as high as 60%. Lastly, when the government talks about corpo…
Its important to note that if a person doesn't owe taxes directly, the probably do contribute through payroll tax. [1]
[1] http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/14/pf/taxes/who_pays_income_tax...
Re: How does Google pay 2.4%?
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ironically, corporate taxes these days generates less than 20% of the fiscal revenues for the government. Generally, 1040 individual taxes still make up the bulk of the taxes paid. In addition, more than 35% of all taxpayers pay zero tax or pay no tax and get refunds. This number is constantly changing, especially recently with the economy. I've seen it go as high as 60%. Lastly, when the government talks about corpo…
Its important to note that if a person doesn't owe taxes directly, the probably do contribute through payroll tax. [1] [1] http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/14/pf/taxes/who_pays_income_tax...
That's a very good point. I should've pointed that out. Another thing that everyone should keep in mind, if your company fails to remit the proper amount of payroll tax (social security and medicare), then it is your responsibility to make up the difference on your 1040. The line for this item is on the second page of the 1040 under the Self-Employment tax.
We're all paying into a system thats falling apart =/..
Re: How does Google pay 2.4%?
#14Google has an effective tax rate of 2.4%? They are being robbed as GE not only pays no taxes but also gets a refund.
Personally, I am tired of millionaires (or well of people like John) complaining about taxes.
Re: How does Google pay 2.4%?
#15Don't many companies pay nothing? IE if my company earns $100k and I pay out $100k in salaries and overhead, there is nothing left to tax as all my expenses were deductible?
Google may pay 2.4% but presumably the money is getting taxed at a higher rate when it gets to individuals.
Re: How does Google pay 2.4%?
#16Fixing this sort of loophole should be far higher on Congress's list of priorities than it is now. There is no reason why a massively profitable corporation like Google should pay so little in taxes when poor Americans are nickel-and-dimed with sales, payroll and income taxes.
Re: How does Google pay 2.4%?
#17Actually, no company _really_ pays taxes. Taxes are another cost of doing business which is passed on to the consumer
Re: How does Google pay 2.4%?
#18Actually, no company _really_ pays taxes. Taxes are another cost of doing business which is passed on to the consumer
Either to the consumer, or to the shareholders or bondholders. But that's just viewing a company as a hollow shell.
Re: How does Google pay 2.4%?
#19Back when Commodore was a company I had the opportunity to get a look at its tax structure (I was interviewing for a VP position with the parent company). It was pretty impressive how effectively one could exploit nominal loop-holes in various jurisdiction tax codes to achieve near zero taxation.
One of the more dubious strategies was having a company in the Cayman Islands that owned the cars that people drove and paid for the gas and maintenance out of corporate accounts, and paid rent and bought food for folks. So your salary could be 'poverty' level and yet you could have quite a nice lifestyle. The poor company in the Caymans was losing money quite rapidly.
As a systems guy I had to be impressed at how they worked that particular system. A CPA friend of mine once quipped that if laziness was the mother of invention, taxation was the father of innovative accounting.
Re: How does Google pay 2.4%?
#20Don't many companies pay nothing? IE if my company earns $100k and I pay out $100k in salaries and overhead, there is nothing left to tax as all my expenses were deductible? Google may pay 2.4% but presumably the money is getting taxed at a higher rate when it gets to individuals.
Well in this circumstance that's not true because thy aren't paying any tax on more than 95 percent ifthe income because it sits outside the united states jurisdiction in a foreign Corp in the caymans. Until they decide to repatriate the income or bring it back into US territories then it is legal untaxable.