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Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Revenue tax? We had that before the fall of the wall - not again please. The VAT system works well and should be used more.

Purchase tax would work like reverse VAT. Companies could be awarded tax credits for their sales (not 100% though) and pay tax on their purchases. This would be harder to evade and additionally incentivise companies to do more with less which might be good for environmental transition.

...or you can just use a VAT, which are also paid at purchase. Tech companies have high margins and low expenses, so if the point is to tax tech companies, taxing purchases and giving a credit to sales is literally the exact opposite of what you want to do.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#112
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should it be illegal? Isn't it akin to "right to remain silent"? Why the need to present any information to police unless it is asked by court. Assuming that they didn't delete the data, just moved it to somewhere safe where it couldn't directly be taken away. We had a raid in one of my previous company due to copyright violation due to a user uploaded content. Authorities came in to take in all the codebase, rep…

[flagged]

Maybe it doesn't exist in lesser countries but it does in the US of A.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#113
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given Wirecard I wouldn’t assume the EU equally prosecutes or tracks crimes for EU and non-EU companies.

Isn't the Wirecard case still pending with execs in jail waiting for trial?

Only after it all imploded did the government go after them.

Until that moment it did the exact opposite including opening criminal investigations into the journalists calling it a scam.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#114

How about just get rid of double taxation in corporate taxes? Eventually, taxes will get paid via distributions or sale of stock by individuals.

Everything is double, triple, etc taxed. The corp->shareholder thing is an arbitrary point to focus on.

Some amount of revenue must be raised. Suggest an alternative. Not taxing corp profits will result is less overall tax income (it wont be made up in shareholder taxes).

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#115
post #86
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's basically what happened when they tried (twice I think ?) to raid Uber offices in France, their boss pressed a kill switch and everything went down in seconds. It completely blocked the investigation. Afterward Uber helped Macron campaign who then ordered National Financial Prosecutor's office to "stop bothering them" so I don't think anything new happened since. Edit: Some sources in below replies for infos o…

That sounds so illegal, it's crazy there aren't consequences for that. EDIT: Article on the kills switch https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-bosses-tol...

Nothing uber does is crazy anymore

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#116
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well no that's not really what happens, what happens is that legally the french entity is just a service provider for the irish HQ. They pretend it's a simple marketing agency and that the real value is provided by the irish entity

Doesn't matter - you can't make any judgement without knowing these numbers. They may have actually paid a higher tax rate than previously - we don't know.

Funny how it works, they lose money everywhere but one of the smallest country they operate in banks 50% of their worldwide revenues, it probably is just a coincidence that this is a tax heaven... we just don't know I guess

The French branch made 160k of profit while the Irish branch made more than all the other EU countries combined

FYI: france is the second market for airbnb after the US... do you really think they would even bother if they did make 160k there when they make 300m+ per year globally ? Do you really think their second market nets them I dont't know much but I'm not a fool

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings

https://www.searchlogistics.com/learn/statistics/airbnb-stat...

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2023/1127/1418779-revenues-...

https://www.breakingnews.ie/business/airbnb-ireland-records-...

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should it be illegal? Isn't it akin to "right to remain silent"? Why the need to present any information to police unless it is asked by court. Assuming that they didn't delete the data, just moved it to somewhere safe where it couldn't directly be taken away. We had a raid in one of my previous company due to copyright violation due to a user uploaded content. Authorities came in to take in all the codebase, rep…

It can be destruction of evidence, which is illegal.

Denying access to data that could still be specifically subpoenaed isn't destruction of evidence, it's a normal security measure. They still have the warrant to search everything in the office, but not the right to use those computers to access uber's entire worldwide infrastructure.

I have no idea what french law says about it but I think it's morally fine and don't care that uber did it.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#118

I know I'm likely alone in this opinion, but corporate income tax seems like a poorly designed tax to me. Why should companies pay taxes in a year with high profits, even if they face losses for the next ten years? Why should I pay corporate income tax when dividends and income are taxed anyway? Corporate income tax also seems to heavily influence business strategies as a consequence, which wasn't its intended purpos…

Because governments need money to fund services. They would put a tax on making HN comments if they could get away with it.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#119
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>First the data is stored in another country. Plus you can engage in some jurisdiction arbitrage where all the documents pertaining to country A is stored in country B, and all the documents pertaining to country B is stored in country A. > Second are they really going to raid and take the drives at an AWS data center that has other customer’s information? You can also ask AWS to produce the files/documents for you.

And those files are hopefully encrypted at rest and probably using a customer managed key…

>using a customer managed key…

Not an AWS expert but how does that even work? Does AWS connect to your HSM remotely? Or is a cloud HSM that's also hosted by AWS?

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#120
post #86
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's basically what happened when they tried (twice I think ?) to raid Uber offices in France, their boss pressed a kill switch and everything went down in seconds. It completely blocked the investigation. Afterward Uber helped Macron campaign who then ordered National Financial Prosecutor's office to "stop bothering them" so I don't think anything new happened since. Edit: Some sources in below replies for infos o…

That sounds so illegal, it's crazy there aren't consequences for that. EDIT: Article on the kills switch https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-bosses-tol...

The alternative, giving them a password that gives them read/write access to sensitive systems, would be insane. Subpoena for particular data.
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