Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America • Hacker News Board

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#31

Post by kristopolous » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:25 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #26

kristopolous wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you honestly say when the people were drafting how IRAs would work they were thinking this as an intended use-case?

The rule of law, and the democratic lawmaking process is based on text, not mind reading.

Well I can pull up exactly what proponents of The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, which introduced the Roth IRA, stated their intentions were since this is very easy to find and widely documented but I strongly suspect you don't actually give a fuck about reality.

So my time spent on this ends now.

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#32

Post by gruez » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:26 AM UTC

vel0city wrote: post #19

gruez wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But corporate taxes are on profit, not revenue, so almost by definition any company that "paying their fair share" is "still makes money".

Imagine if a household was only taxed on the money they managed to put away in savings and could count housing expenses, food expenses, education costs, healthcare, entertainment, vacations, vehicle purchases, etc. 100% against their income.

>could count housing expenses, food expenses, education costs, healthcare, entertainment, vacations, vehicle purchases

That's what the standard/itemized deduction is supposed to represent. The problem is that we obviously can't let you deduct everything, because if you can deduct everything there would be nothing to tax, aside from savings. And you really don't want to tax savings because savings (also known as "investment") is what makes the modern economy possible.

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#33

Post by mulmen » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:26 AM UTC

vel0city wrote: post #19

gruez wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But corporate taxes are on profit, not revenue, so almost by definition any company that "paying their fair share" is "still makes money".

Imagine if a household was only taxed on the money they managed to put away in savings and could count housing expenses, food expenses, education costs, healthcare, entertainment, vacations, vehicle purchases, etc. 100% against their income.

Is this a joke? That’s mostly how it works already.

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#34

Post by denkmoon » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:26 AM UTC

vel0city wrote: post #19

gruez wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But corporate taxes are on profit, not revenue, so almost by definition any company that "paying their fair share" is "still makes money".

Imagine if a household was only taxed on the money they managed to put away in savings and could count housing expenses, food expenses, education costs, healthcare, entertainment, vacations, vehicle purchases, etc. 100% against their income.

nobody would ever put anything into savings under such a scheme.

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#35

Post by lotsofpulp » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:26 AM UTC

kristopolous wrote: post #17

gruez wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What counts as a loophole though? IRA, almost by design is a way to shelter your investments from taxes. Is it a loophole to put your investments in an IRA to avoid taxes? What about when Peter Thiel puts his paypal stock in an IRA, and paid no taxes on his paypal exit?

Can you honestly say when the people were drafting how IRAs would work they were thinking this as an intended use-case?

Can you say why employees of large and well funded businesses get to save $23k+ per year in 401k, but employees of small and less well funded businesses can only save $7k per year in an IRA?

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#36

Post by paulcole » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:27 AM UTC

bobxmax wrote: post #4

strangattractor wrote: post #3

Wow and they still make money despite paying their fair share. Who would have ever thought.

I always find "fair share" to be an odd argument. Who decides what's a fair share?

It’s very easy. If I think I pay a lot then I’m paying more than my fair share. If I think you’re not paying enough then you’re not paying your fair share.

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#37

Post by learn-forever » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:27 AM UTC

vel0city wrote: post #19

gruez wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But corporate taxes are on profit, not revenue, so almost by definition any company that "paying their fair share" is "still makes money".

Imagine if a household was only taxed on the money they managed to put away in savings and could count housing expenses, food expenses, education costs, healthcare, entertainment, vacations, vehicle purchases, etc. 100% against their income.

are you agitating to tax companies that lose money?

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#38

Post by tekla » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:27 AM UTC

kristopolous wrote: post #28

tekla wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn, people who pay into their 401Ks are fucking evil.

https://itep.org/55-profitable-corporations-zero-corporate-t... Some examples: > Food conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland enjoyed $438 million of U.S. pretax income last year and received a federal tax rebate of $164 million. > The delivery giant FedEx zeroed out its federal income tax on $1.2 billion of U.S. pretax income in 2020 and received a rebate of $230 million. > The shoe manufacturer Nike didn’t pay a dime o…

How is it a loophole when it was literally legally allowed, not even as a slight of hand.

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#39

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:27 AM UTC

vel0city wrote: post #19

gruez wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But corporate taxes are on profit, not revenue, so almost by definition any company that "paying their fair share" is "still makes money".

Imagine if a household was only taxed on the money they managed to put away in savings and could count housing expenses, food expenses, education costs, healthcare, entertainment, vacations, vehicle purchases, etc. 100% against their income.

[deleted]

Re: Berkshire Hathaway Now Pays 5% of All Corporate Income Taxes in America

#40

Post by almosthere » Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 12:28 AM UTC

If you include the income tax of employees it is a lot higher.

Perhaps we need window dressing to make people happy. Stop doing "income" tax and convert it to "payroll" tax. Gov gets the same amount, people can stop complaining about companies not paying tax. But at the end of the day, it's all window dressing.