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

theguardian.com

61–70 of 83 posts

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

#61
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Timescale has nothing to do with this though. You're Starbucks, you sell me a cup of coffee, you make profit from that cup of coffee, you pay taxes on that singular profit. What your companies bank account states is not what I care about as tax collector. The profits you make have nothing to do with the equipment you bought earlier to even start the business. Otherwise you could simply: Buy expensive stuff -> even ou…

What do you mean by "make profit from that cup of coffee"? A cup of coffee is hot bean water in a cup - is profit simply the price Starbucks charges minus the cost of (water + bean + cup)? What about the cost of energy to heat the water? What about the fractional cost of the machine that actually puts the water and beans together to brew the coffee (you could do some sort of analysis based on purchase price / total n…

Everything you named should be included in the price you charge for a cup of coffee. So the money you extract from it, minus the cost you named is your profit. If you dont make profit on that sale, I have bad news for your business idea.

>Yep, you could do this. Only problem is, uh, you never make any money. If you're running a hobby or something, that's fine, but most people owning business want to realize some profit...

Debt is technically profit in that sense, as long as you can pay it back.

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

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The content generally reads like Claude slop. Lots of self-narration, throat clearing sentences, overuse of verbs like “lands”, overuse of tidy sentence conclusions. It’s all fixable with a modicum of effort but combined with the slop styling I’m not sure what you’re trying to achieve other than just pushing slop online.

There is nothing wrong with using AI tools to do your work, or part of it. If there are genuine inaccuracies in the content, please point those out and I will fix them asap, so everyone can benefit. These things are here, they are here to stay, and they will only get better. Better to learn to use them in correct manner, than shrug them off without any logical reasoning.

The problem is your content both looks and reads like low effort slop. Not that AI tools are here to stay.

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

#63
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "make profit from that cup of coffee"? A cup of coffee is hot bean water in a cup - is profit simply the price Starbucks charges minus the cost of (water + bean + cup)? What about the cost of energy to heat the water? What about the fractional cost of the machine that actually puts the water and beans together to brew the coffee (you could do some sort of analysis based on purchase price / total n…

Everything you named should be included in the price you charge for a cup of coffee. So the money you extract from it, minus the cost you named is your profit. If you dont make profit on that sale, I have bad news for your business idea. >Yep, you could do this. Only problem is, uh, you never make any money. If you're running a hobby or something, that's fine, but most people owning business want to realize some prof…

Ok, fair enough. To focus on one line item I mentioned ("What about the fractional cost of the machine that actually puts the water and beans together to brew the coffee (you could do some sort of analysis based on purchase price / total number of coffees made over useful lifetime)") - my understanding is a capital expense like this is typically handled by amortizing it from revenue over the course of a few years (super easy, just cost of machine / useful lifespan). Just need to rework the formula to solve for fractional cost per coffee brewed instead of per year. The same process can be used for, say, the "royalty and license fees" Starbucks UK was paying. Just convert from fee per year to fee per coffee. So, the net effect of your big change is just reworking all the accounting from "per year" figures to "per coffee" figures? How does that improve anything about the world (other than giving accountants some more work that they will charge handsomely to do)?

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

#64
post #40

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.

Then let's have a similar system for citizens.

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

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing wrong with using AI tools to do your work, or part of it. If there are genuine inaccuracies in the content, please point those out and I will fix them asap, so everyone can benefit. These things are here, they are here to stay, and they will only get better. Better to learn to use them in correct manner, than shrug them off without any logical reasoning.

The problem is your content both looks and reads like low effort slop. Not that AI tools are here to stay.

define slop

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

#66
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because if you are someone that generates good content you might not know anything about designing or hosting websites. But they can ask an AI to do it for them so they can focus on what they are good at, generating interesting content.

Which might be true if the content weren’t also AI slop.

Mighty obsessed with slop, is that what you give Alex Karp?

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

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is your content both looks and reads like low effort slop. Not that AI tools are here to stay.

define slop

My guy, stop asking me to do all the legwork for you.

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

#69
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "make profit from that cup of coffee"? A cup of coffee is hot bean water in a cup - is profit simply the price Starbucks charges minus the cost of (water + bean + cup)? What about the cost of energy to heat the water? What about the fractional cost of the machine that actually puts the water and beans together to brew the coffee (you could do some sort of analysis based on purchase price / total n…

Everything you named should be included in the price you charge for a cup of coffee. So the money you extract from it, minus the cost you named is your profit. If you dont make profit on that sale, I have bad news for your business idea. >Yep, you could do this. Only problem is, uh, you never make any money. If you're running a hobby or something, that's fine, but most people owning business want to realize some prof…

>>Everything you named should be included in the price you charge for a cup of coffee. So the money you extract from it, minus the cost you named is your profit.

When you first invest 100k and then sell something for 2$ you don't make a profit for a while. You may be arguing for some other tax but it's ridiculous to argue income tax should be paid until revenue > costs.

>>If you dont make profit on that sale, I have bad news for your business idea.

When doing business you often don't know if you will make profit or not. In the coffee example you don't know how many you are going to sell so it's impossible to "include costs in the cup of coffee" because that depends on how many you are going to sell and that's unknown. Your whole line of reasoning makes 0 sense.

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

#70
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

VAT and income tax are completely different taxes. One is a tax on income. The other is a consumption tax - like a sale tax but with additional accounting steps.
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