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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

#461

Post by de_Selby »

axlee wrote: post #425
de_Selby wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to have a very strange definition of theft. Other countries are perfectly entitled to do similarly, as Netherlands does. Why is there not a focus on countries such as Bermuda here? They are the "tax havens" who make this possible in the first place.

>Why is there not a focus on countries such as Bermuda here? They are the "tax havens" who make this possible in the first place. There is. Two wrongs don't make a right. The topic at hand is Ireland. > Other countries are perfectly entitled to do similarly, as Netherlands does. If every country acted the same way, there would not be a single functioning nation on earth. Their benefits only exist because other countr…

> there would not be a single functioning nation on earth

Holy hyperbole, Batman.

No, it would just mean that there would be a homogeneous corporate tax system, which is what people seem to always argue for.

'Parasites' is also a ridiculous description.

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

#462

Post by breakfastduck »

nivenkos wrote: post #219
oblio wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why on earth do you think its fair for US based organizations to spread across the globe, reap the huge profits from that but funnel all the cash back into the US Random guess, they're American :-) Facebook, Google & co. are absolutely ravaging local economies, pardon me, disrupting legacy economies all over the world and a small chunk of that ends up as compensation in the US. The rest of that, FAANG are just sitt…

And the EU loves it! Absolutely no support or protection for local companies, Linux, etc. Where is our Baidu, Samsung, Yandex, or Sony, etc.? The whole continent is practically a vassal state of the US, under German administration.

I’ve always found the “Brexit means the UK will become a US vassal” angle amusing for exactly that reason.

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

#463

Post by breakfastduck »

tonfa wrote: post #407
breakfastduck wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should it be different? Because you're extract money from a foreign country, utilizing their economy and giving nothing back in return for the infrastructure that's allowing you to make the money - that's why.

That might be fair, but should be applied uniformly (that's a very different internet than the internet of the old days though). Would end up with every digital company having to register in country before accepting any user from that country (with maybe a facilitated process where they can self declare their per-country revenue). People already complain about the arbitrary geo-fencing, but that might indeed be inevi…

Having users from a country != selling user data to businesses based in that country, though.

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

#464

Post by apercu »

gher-shyu3i wrote: post #395
apercu wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for places outside of the Americas because I've only travelled in the Americas for the last 10 years. But from Northern Quebec to Idaho to Florida to Nassau to Saskatoon bridges are cracking, rail is buckling, public transportation is lacking, etc. Health care wait times are bad or prices are ridiculous because of the false market we have created. So do I think governments having more money NOT by squee…

> So do I think governments having more money NOT by squeezing me and all those I live near more is a good thing? Why yes, yes I do. Unfortunately, those same governments don't see it as a mutually exclusive matter. They want to both tax you and everyone else. Not only that, they will end up wasting that money and nothing will get accomplished. You said it yourself, Canada has very bad wait times for healthcare. We n…

I have never experienced bad wait time in Canada. In rural areas this is more common. I emigrated FROM the use TO Canada for its healthcare.

I also don't think that governments "waste" money. That is more right wing bullshit talking point propaganda. The rich ARE NOT job creators.

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

#465

Post by tluyben2 »

Grustaf wrote: post #220
rorykoehler wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

25% is what I would expect. You're getting some of the other expenses back eventually (hopefully) in form of pensions, unemployment (if you ever need it) etc. Health itself is a service you are buying. I wouldn't call it a tax despite it being mandatory. I think taxes are too high and the system needs to be redesigned but I just think we need to be exact on our figures when we discuss this stuff.

You can expect whatever you want, but no middle class person pays as little as 25% in Europe, only the wealthy and the desperately poor get away that cheap.

Unless you do not mind moving every 7-10 years.

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

#466

Post by tluyben2 »

Grustaf wrote: post #298
ceejayoz wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American citizen who paid $30k for healthcare last year and looking at college for two kids in less than a decade, I'd take the Danish deal laid out in that article pretty happily.

I live in Denmark, and frankly speaking I think most Europeans view the US as a kind of developing country. It can be nice if you're well off, but so can Rio or Capetown. Thinking about it Capetown is much nicer than most US cities.

People like to complain about taxes here, a lot, but where would we get the standard of living without it? Seems there is a disconnect. In the US, where, by the way, you pay quite a lot of tax still, you can end up living in a box or get worse health treatment even then. We do not get things for free: we pay taxes for it. It can be lower because we could cut corruption and inefficiency but it would still be a lot and people will still cry in forums.

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

#467

Post by tluyben2 »

yunohn wrote: post #193
igravious wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because many people in Western countries do not fully appreciate how well off they are in global terms. https://www.icalculator.info/netherlands/income-tax-rates/20... 37.35% Income from €0.00 to €68,507.00 49.5% Income from €68,507.01 and above Therefore if you are (for instance) paying 40+% effective tax on your income in the Netherlands you're clearly earning north of €70k a year. To put that in context – “You Are…

Income is usually relative to the person’s location. It’s not very useful to compare my situation to that of a person in the global south. Income correlates closely to cost of living. I fully appreciate that I make more money than “a lot of the world”. But I don’t think it’s wrong to ask that corporations and high-net-worth individuals, also pay their fair share and not just leave the burden to people like me.

That is more the issue, well for me anyway; taxes are fine and the height is not really relevant but I do not want to be holding the bag here. If someone who earns a billion pays 5% why would I pay 40%? That is my only real complaint about taxes and I hear this from wealthy people: why would they if their friends do not? It is tax, not charity: except yes it is a lot of charity but it is anonymous so you cannot get charity kudos. So those who can avoid and you have a problem. Not sure how big the problem is in money, but I think many people would have a better feeling about forking over 40% if they knew the billionair around the corner is paying 60.
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