It's weird that corporations have philanthropic arms, isn't it?
It's mostly just tax avoidance, right?
How so? Taxable income is pretty much always better than 0 income
Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
341–350 of 581 posts
Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
There warehouses are significantly worse than average in terms of injuries per hour. They also frequently sell fraudulent items directly harming consumers. I can’t think of a metric where they aren’t worse than the average retailer.
Injuries per item picked or per capita might be a better metric. It's pretty easy to say the injuries are higher if you have more employees and higher volume than the competitors. Same thing with fraudulent items on Walmart.com.
Injuries per item picked is obviously the inferior of the two, and fairly poor on its own as well.
Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
#343> Amazon is trying to find money wherever it can
Not really. Amazon is spending more cash on english language TV and movies than Netflix. It's also acquiring it's way into... health care?
All of the things that make money at Amazon are related to the core e-commerce biz (ads, subscriptions, marketplace) or some core competency developed to support e-commerce (AWS). They have no competitive advantage in providing medical care, making movies, or household gadgets.
Big tech is struggling with the idea that their business is maturing and will be less exciting from here. It's a tough pill for hot shot founders/managers to swallow.
Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can select which charity to support on smile.amazon.de at least. So pick the top 10% or 5% or whatever charities that were supported by the most customers.
Funny thing is I’d bet the small amount trickling in to the long tail charities is more impactful to them than a larger amount to the big mega-charities. I run one of those long tails and Amazon Smile was just right to cover running costs for hosting, bank fees, etc.
Honestly I'm surprised they're doing this; something must have bit them on the paperwork side, because $100-$200 for each tiny charity (think local dog shelter, local church, etc; even if they're 'branded' they're often independent charities) was a cheap advertisement for Amazon. Now that's over.
Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
#345It's weird that corporations have philanthropic arms, isn't it?
A lot of what NGOs, foundations, and other philanthropic organizations do is seek to mold things in some way that is beneficial to the founders with tax advantaged money.
Rich people don't get rich by giving their money away randomly. For example, if Bill Gates didn't start the Gates Foundation his money would have been highly taxed, and he would have lost control of it. By starting the Gates Foundation he keeps control of that money, and he can use the foundation to steer policy in ways that are beneficial to him.
Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me where I am they use UPS and once they actually ship it gets here in a few days, but even prime orders don't seem to bother leaving the warehouse for a week or more (for in-stock things). It's like every order is now "Amazon day orders" or something.
yah they play the whole get a $2 digital credit or whatever for orders. It kind of blurs the expectations too when now it's becoming the norm for things not to meet the 2day shipping expectations that is prime. Things are also blurred in the opposite direction with same day shipping or one day shipping on certain items. It's the inconsistency that's confusing and kind of invites you to stop guessing and just patientl…
They used to offer - prime 2 day, slower day, really slow day for $2.
The last one is hardly offered anymore, I used to try to game orders to get it but now I get:
prime slower day, sometime next year, hahahaha
as the options
Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny thing is I’d bet the small amount trickling in to the long tail charities is more impactful to them than a larger amount to the big mega-charities. I run one of those long tails and Amazon Smile was just right to cover running costs for hosting, bank fees, etc.
Honestly I'm surprised they're doing this; something must have bit them on the paperwork side, because $100-$200 for each tiny charity (think local dog shelter, local church, etc; even if they're 'branded' they're often independent charities) was a cheap advertisement for Amazon. Now that's over.
Because it came under the field of vision of some dumbass MBA who decided that saving a few millions would be worth more and a sizeable contribution to their end of year bonus figure.
Source: I'm a dumbass MBA admittee.
Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
#348Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're absolutely not - but the people that attack Amazon don't care about that. Amazon to many represents Capitalism, and so acts as a catchall for criticisms of Capitalism. Ironically, small family shops use WAY more child labor, unpaid labor etc as a percentage than Amazon. They also produce more plastic per item, take only cash to evade taxes, etc.
It’s hard to imagine the average small business successfully evading taxes as well as Amazon. In 2019 Amazon paid zero taxes receiving a net $129 million refund from the federal government, in 2018 they received a $137 million refund after paying 0$ on a net income of 11.2 billion dollars. In 2020 they paid a net tax of $162 million on $13.9 billion of pre-tax income a net tax rate of 1.2%.
net tax rate is meaningless in this context. Besides the fact that they're doing what each one of us do (take deductions following the law), it completely ignores all the other tax they pay - like payroll tax on a massive employee base and so forth.
To imply Amazon (or any corp) are floating by with a total tax load of ~1% is either profoundly disingenuous or profoundly naïve.
Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're absolutely not - but the people that attack Amazon don't care about that. Amazon to many represents Capitalism, and so acts as a catchall for criticisms of Capitalism. Ironically, small family shops use WAY more child labor, unpaid labor etc as a percentage than Amazon. They also produce more plastic per item, take only cash to evade taxes, etc.
It’s hard to imagine the average small business successfully evading taxes as well as Amazon. In 2019 Amazon paid zero taxes receiving a net $129 million refund from the federal government, in 2018 they received a $137 million refund after paying 0$ on a net income of 11.2 billion dollars. In 2020 they paid a net tax of $162 million on $13.9 billion of pre-tax income a net tax rate of 1.2%.
"Tax evasion" is illegal and what the parent poster clearly meant by "taking cash". Companies (and individuals for that matter) take the entirely rational step to use all legal methods to pay as little tax as they can.
Additionally, receiving a refund indicates that Amazon overpaid on their income taxes and that the government agreed.
Also additionally, the figures you are throwing around are income taxes only. Amazon likely pays many other taxes far in excess of the net worth of anybody involved in this conversation. Implying that Amazon "paid zero taxes" without further qualification is wholly dishonest, and you know it, and you should stop doing it.
Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
Injuries per item picked or per capita might be a better metric. It's pretty easy to say the injuries are higher if you have more employees and higher volume than the competitors. Same thing with fraudulent items on Walmart.com.
Injuries per item picked is obviously the inferior of the two, and fairly poor on its own as well.
Inferior in what way? If you are trying to do some kind of moral calculation to figure out how many marginal injuries you are creating by ordering an item, then injuries per item picked is probably the right metric.