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Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

theguardian.com

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Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#101

Post by jefftk »

juandazapata wrote: post #82
rorykoehler wrote: post #65

We should stop all taxation and use inflation to pay for everything instead. Much simpler and no one can get out of it.

Can you expand on this? How would this work?

The idea is that the government prints money to cover expenses. If you could somehow force everyone to hold all their wealth in cash, this would act as a wealth tax.

This doesn't work, however, because with very high planned inflation no one wants to use your currency, and without taxation there's no reason they have to.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#102

Post by edp »

rorykoehler wrote: post #75
jbverschoor wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There you pay 40-50% incometax first

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…

Here in France, as a contractor, if I bill a client 100 000€ annually and decide to get as much as possible in personal income, 30 000€ will go as social taxes (health, retirement ...) and for the remaining 70 000€ you will have to pay around 25% as income tax (if you don't have any children).

You will have an income of ~52 000€ for 100 000€ billed during the year. You're not earning millions and yet around 50% of revenue was paid for tax purposes.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#103

Post by DrBazza »

crocal wrote: post #71
DrBazza wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for non-UK HN readers, the Guardian is a rather left-of-political-centre newspaper. Or generally, each UK newspaper has a particular take on UK politics, and generally employs journalists or freelancers that have the same or more extreme views.

I find ironic to portray as extremists journalists who report on a company that pays zero (0) taxes on revenues expressed in billions. I would rather apply the adjective to the reported company for some reason, but maybe we have different measuring scales.

Well, what's ironic, is that I read the Guardian, amongst other newspapers.

I personally find it helpful, when a newspaper from a country that is not my own, is linked-to on HN, what political leanings it has, as that helps understand the story and provide some background, and in some cases the particular views of a journalist.

I like balance, or at least reading stories with views I may not necessarily agree with, but at least I make the effort to read those. And perhaps I'll learn something, or change my views on a topic.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#104

Post by rorykoehler »

yunohn wrote: post #95
rorykoehler wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congrats you are earning a lot. You should be grateful to be in such a privileged position few can dream of.

Not really, I wish I were. Here’s the NL tax brackets: * € 0 - 68.508 37,10% * € 68.508+ 49,50%

There is no tax free allowance in NL? Do you pay extra for healthcare or is it paid for out of that amount?

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#106

Post by I_am_tiberius »

malux85 wrote: post #2

I have to pay 40% of my income as income tax. I have HAD ENOUGH. This is infuriating. What can we do?

Sorry but this is not a good comparison. Microsoft created many jobs which are all paying this kind of income tax. This article is about corporate tax which is tax on the company's profit.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#107

Post by crocal »

danuker wrote: post #67
crocal wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxing mega corporations is essential. I would add that you need to tax them to oblivion after shareholder’s expectations are reasonably satisfied. If you don’t, you essentially create rogue institutions with deep pockets that will attempt to take political control of the nation for their selfish interests. Adam Smith had interesting things to say about that.

> will attempt to take political control of the nation for their selfish interests Kind of like the current lobbying going on all over the world?

Well, yes and no. In my opinion, lobbying in itself is not evil if it remains within reasonable limits.

One of the limiting factor is to avoid giving the said lobbies unlimited funding. That is one of the reason for taxing corporations.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#108

Post by aNoob7000 »

adolph wrote: post #38
neilwilson wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best tax is one that is imposed on an individual but paid at source by the corporation paying them. Individuals shouldn't see tax. That way the voters don't complain when you need to put it up. Sales tax is similarly a pain - particularly when you have differing rates. At which point we get into the famous is it a cake or a biscuit type cases to decide where the dividing line is.

People not knowing their tax burden: feature or bug?

I think paying your state and federal taxes in the United States should be seamless. Your employer should take the taxes out of your paycheck. At the end of the month/year, you should get a statement showing all the taxes you paid.

I recently had to update my W4 form at work for tax withholding, and what a pain in the ass to read and decipher. Add to that, and I had to do the same thing for my state taxes.

I want to point out that Congress has shot down the idea of making it easier to pay your taxes many times. I'm not sure if it is Intuit or some other entity, but paying your taxes should be easy. If you don't like the level of taxation, then work to reduce them, but paying them should be easy.

Re: Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year

#109

Post by DFHippie »

malux85 wrote: post #2

I have to pay 40% of my income as income tax. I have HAD ENOUGH. This is infuriating. What can we do?

Are you sure you pay 40%? Googling around a bit to find the US income tax rates (assuming you are in the US) I found this:

https://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/tax-brackets.aspx

This is really just the first thing I looked at, but it seems to provide the desired information.

The highest bracket, for income above roughly 550k, is 37%. So considering only federal income tax it is impossible to pay 40% of your income in taxes, but also the first 550k or so of your income would be taxed at lower rates.

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