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Senate report: Microsoft used loopholes to avoid billions in taxes

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Re: Senate report: Microsoft used loopholes to avoid billions in taxes

#31

Post by [deleted] »

philwelch wrote: post #28
dumb_dumb wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is exactly it. And though I do not have the quote in front of me, I can tell you this is how the justice who said it approached every issue. Maybe "encouraged" and "engrained" were not the right words. How about "endorsed"? I think rational self-interest is a concept that might vary in the degree to which it is adopted into people's behavior as you move from country to country. That's only a theory. Certainly, i…

> But if I'm the taxing entity, is it rational for me to endorse the idea of paying less? It's rational for you to accept the fact that people will work to minimize their tax liability and construct policy under that assumption.

[deleted]

Re: Senate report: Microsoft used loopholes to avoid billions in taxes

#32

Post by ebf »

csense wrote: post #16
blantonl wrote: post #10

A new congressional investigation claims Microsoft has been able to avoid paying $6.5-billion in taxes since 2009 thanks to the complicated tax structure in the U.S. The role of a CFO (and his office) is to do exactly what resulted above. Build a team of accountants, lawyers, and financial analysts that makes sure that the financial health of the company is strong. "Is this a tax credit we can take advantage of, do i…

> why is this even an issue? Because the Democrats want to press home the message that corporations and wealth are inherently evil in this election cycle, and the chairman of the committee quoted in the article is a Democrat, as the article mentions, twice. An unfortunately large percentage of the US population apparently isn't capable of formulating the good and simple question in the last sentence of your post -- a…

> Because the Democrats want to press home the message that corporations and wealth are inherently evil in this election cycle...

Can we see quote from a Democrat saying this?

Re: Senate report: Microsoft used loopholes to avoid billions in taxes

#33

Post by philwelch »

[deleted] wrote: post #31
philwelch wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But if I'm the taxing entity, is it rational for me to endorse the idea of paying less? It's rational for you to accept the fact that people will work to minimize their tax liability and construct policy under that assumption.

[deleted]

If you think it's an American thing, go look up how IKEA avoids taxes sometime. In exactly what country do most companies voluntarily pay more tax than they're legally required to?

Re: Senate report: Microsoft used loopholes to avoid billions in taxes

#36

Post by 001sky »

wildmXranat wrote: post #27
count wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you work for a public firm and know that the 'loophole' exists, I wonder if share holders could take action against you if you did NOT utilize it.

On the flip-side, how is it that publicly elected officials are not indicted or held responsible for creating these loopholes after being lobbied and end up costing their shareholders - the public, some real coin. I think of the whole thing as a closed loop ecosystem and somebody has to be losing, if a group of shareholders is gaining.

This is actually a valid question. Surprisingly, in business you can argue your incompetence shields you. The "business judgement rule"[1] says basically you are allowed to make "mistakes". But you're not allowed to be "negligent", act bad faith or whatever.

[1] In the USA, viz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_judgment_rule

Re: Senate report: Microsoft used loopholes to avoid billions in taxes

#37

Post by blake8086 »

csense wrote: post #11

The problem is that loopholes are largely monotonic. Every loophole that exists was originally a political favor to some important constituency. There are always important constituencies seeking political favors, or embattled politicians or parties seeking new allies; so there will always be pressure to create new loopholes. If a loophole's in danger of going away, its constituency will scream bloody murder. Republic…

I think Bush said "no new taxes" and then raised existing taxes.

Re: Senate report: Microsoft used loopholes to avoid billions in taxes

#38

Post by dumb_dumb »

philwelch wrote: post #33
[deleted] wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

If you think it's an American thing, go look up how IKEA avoids taxes sometime. In exactly what country do most companies voluntarily pay more tax than they're legally required to?

I don't know but that would be a cool country to live in, don't you think? Rational self-interested people helping each other out. It could be a good thing.

Re: Senate report: Microsoft used loopholes to avoid billions in taxes

#39

Post by csense »

blake8086 wrote: post #37
csense wrote: post #11

The problem is that loopholes are largely monotonic. Every loophole that exists was originally a political favor to some important constituency. There are always important constituencies seeking political favors, or embattled politicians or parties seeking new allies; so there will always be pressure to create new loopholes. If a loophole's in danger of going away, its constituency will scream bloody murder. Republic…

I think Bush said "no new taxes" and then raised existing taxes.

This actually supports my point.

I've read in several places that the public perceived it as a broken promise and it's a major reason why he lost to Bill Clinton.

The message Republican politicians took away is: The public doesn't interpret anti-tax promises narrowly; if you make one, you'd better stay the heck away from anything that looks remotely like raising taxes.

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