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The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

theguardian.com

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Re: The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

#31

Post by bko »

Nursie wrote: post #19
bko wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems entirely reasonable. Suppose you're a company and you lost $100m over the last few years, so naturally you have a sizable tax deduction from future earnings. Even if you're profitable now, over the life of your business you've lost money so it makes sense you don't pay taxes until you make back that $100m you lost. If you begin selling in a different tax jurisdiction, that would be unfair that you have to…

In a convenient amount that somehow just always exceeds the profits it makes, in perpetuity? Pull the other one mate, it's got bells on.

How is it convenient that they lost a lot of money in the past and it pays it's employees in stock?

Yes, any company can pay 0 taxes by taking all the money that they made and setting it on fire, in perpetuity.

Re: The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

#32

Post by Okx »

chr1 wrote: post #21

Tax system and government budget in general are very deliberate system of smoke and mirrors designed to obfuscate how the money is spent. You are paying income tax, but your employee is paying payroll tax for you, is buying health insurance to avoid tax that would have to pay if that money was given to you. You are paying part of corporate tax indirectly, paying various tariffs sales taxes etc. There should be only p…

Unfortunately if your employer pays for private health insurance, HMRC says that is a taxable benefit and you still pay tax. The more insidious part is how the government makes employers pay a hidden 15% national insurance tax that needs to be paid on top of the tax on your salary.

Re: The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

#33

Post by Nursie »

bko wrote: post #31
Nursie wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a convenient amount that somehow just always exceeds the profits it makes, in perpetuity? Pull the other one mate, it's got bells on.

How is it convenient that they lost a lot of money in the past and it pays it's employees in stock? Yes, any company can pay 0 taxes by taking all the money that they made and setting it on fire, in perpetuity.

They could, but that's not what they're doing, they're moving the profit to a lower tax situation to avoid paying. Pure and simple.

Re: The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

#34

Post by BrandoElFollito »

Pooge wrote: post #28
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #20

I seriously do not understand why companies pay taxes on the income and not the revenue. (EDIT: I mixed them up) I pay on the revenue. I also buy things. I also consume. And somehow I can manage with taxes on the revenue. This would also solve the problem of companies that get 10 M€ in revenue, but somehow only 10€ is taxed because expenditure, capex etc

I got curious while reading and I've read this[1]: > Revenue is total money from core business activities before expenses are deducted. > Income, or net income, is earnings remaining after all expenses are deducted from revenue. Sorry for being pedantic. I don't understand why English has such ambiguous terms for something that shouldn't be. Or am I even more confused now? To directly answer your comment: I agree tha…

Sorry, I mixed them up (I am not a native speaker of English, but would have probably mixed them up in French as well :)). Thanks (I updated my post)

Re: The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

#35

Post by sevenzero »

greyw wrote: post #29
sevenzero wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>so it makes sense you don't pay taxes until you make back that $100m you lost LOL. You losing money with your business is no excuse to not pay taxes on profits you make after losing money. Just because you lost money doesn't mean you dont make profits until you earned back that money. Taxes should be paid every time you make money in the country your business operates in. Simple as that. Everybody benefits off of ta…

I dont know a single country that doesnt allow losses to be offset from future profits. Not a single one! It discourages investments in your country.

So I'll expect not having to pay VAT next time I buy from a franchised business operating in my country given that all of them usually make little to no profits officially.

Re: The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

#36

Post by bko »

Nursie wrote: post #15
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mentioned in the article: > contracts with customers were signed with Palantir’s US companies, which in turn paid a service fee to local country subsidiaries to deliver the work. Similar trick are used by many companies, for example Starbucks UK conveniently paid £40m in "royalty and license fees" to the parent company resulting in a £35m loss in the UK. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/15/starbucks…

There's a coal mine here in Australia (NT I think) run by a company called Adani. When it was being proposed they did the usual "but think of all the taxes!" song and dance to get it approved. It's never posted a profit despite about a billion in annual revenue, and so never paid a penny of corp tax. Personally I think the tax authorities ought to take the line that a company posting losses like this is clearly not a…

> Personally I think the tax authorities ought to take the line that a company posting serial losses like this is clearly not a viable, ongoing concern and ought to be wound up.

Tax authorities don't need to do this. Investors will. Where will the money come from? If there's no future prospects, it will cease operations.

> If Starbucks UK is a loss-making venture, they should have some explaining to do when they're opening new branches.

I like how discussion of taxes turned everyone into a fierce defender of profit maximization. Nothing about adding back to the community, paying decent wages, etc.

Re: The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

#37

Post by BrandoElFollito »

drdec wrote: post #30
BrandoElFollito wrote: post #20

I seriously do not understand why companies pay taxes on the income and not the revenue. (EDIT: I mixed them up) I pay on the revenue. I also buy things. I also consume. And somehow I can manage with taxes on the revenue. This would also solve the problem of companies that get 10 M€ in revenue, but somehow only 10€ is taxed because expenditure, capex etc

Some companies run at an extremely narrow margin. For example the margin for grocery stores is reportedly 1%. If you changed the tax system to tax gross revenues, now those stores would need to dramatically raise prices to accommodate. It's not an easy problem.

It all depends on the tax level. If today they are texted at, say, 20%, this could be a 5% on gross revenue (or whatever), and indexed on the revenue (like for humans).

I also run on narrow margins, and nobody cares.

Re: The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

#38

Post by Havoc »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #5
freakynit wrote: post #2

In case anyone is interested in knowing the "how" part, read this: https://palantir-uk-tax-evasion.pagey.site/

It's mentioned in the article: > contracts with customers were signed with Palantir’s US companies, which in turn paid a service fee to local country subsidiaries to deliver the work. Similar trick are used by many companies, for example Starbucks UK conveniently paid £40m in "royalty and license fees" to the parent company resulting in a £35m loss in the UK. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/15/starbucks…

Delivering work is a bit more defensible that the IP based transfers that big tech loves so much

Re: The software group Palantir paid just £2M in corporation tax in the UK in 2024

#40

Post by Okx »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #20

I seriously do not understand why companies pay taxes on the income and not the revenue. (EDIT: I mixed them up) I pay on the revenue. I also buy things. I also consume. And somehow I can manage with taxes on the revenue. This would also solve the problem of companies that get 10 M€ in revenue, but somehow only 10€ is taxed because expenditure, capex etc

Taxing companies on revenue would completely wipe out low-margin businesses like supermarkets, and create massive distortions in the economy where one company being vertically integrated and owning everything being practically the only option, as otherwise goods passed between businesses means tax is paid on the revenue twice.

It would kill the economy overnight.

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