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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

#91

Post by scarface_74 »

gruez wrote: post #76
scarface_74 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First the data is stored in another country. Second are they really going to raid and take the drives at an AWS data center that has other customer’s information? How will they know which drive to take?

>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…

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#92

Post by tenacious_tuna »

_ink_ wrote: post #74
tenacious_tuna wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds fascinating, do you happen to have a link? (I'm getting a lot of German results, which unfortunately I don't have the fluency to parse to find the 'right' one.)

Here you go: https://logbuch-netzpolitik.de/lnp500-zombiecalypse-im-grune... (it's in German, tho)

that's fine! I can handle translating an individual page (or interview) if I've high confidence it's the right/relevant one, just parsing search results is harder cross-language (for me, anyway).

thanks much!

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#93

Post by HelloNurse »

playingalong wrote: post #66
spwa4 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a product allowing for client-side encrypted mounts? Or just use a SAAS outside of the country that doesn't allow for exporting any data under any circumstances?

The whole point (or at least the main point) of the tax paperwork is to be able to produce them to tax investigators. If you don't want to share anything, then it's easier not to do the accounting. Which I guess is severally illegal globally.

Being unable/unwilling to produce mandatory records is fraud. Technical measures to be unable to produce records (e.g. offshore and encrypted archival) are evidence of criminal intent and possibly separate crimes.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#94

Post by sensanaty »

Algent wrote: post #69
seiferteric wrote: post #5

I wonder how these "office raids" would work for remote first companies that don't have much of an office presence and with little or no physical documents and everything being stored in the cloud somewhere.

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…

How the hell can any of what you just described be legal?

Do you have any articles about this? Because this is insane if true.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#95

Post by closeparen »

I_am_tiberius wrote: post #85

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…

Whether you earn and save a given dollar as a W2 worker or through a business you own seems pretty incidental, right? Your net worth is going up just the same; society has the same interest in containing inequality.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#96

Post by YetAnotherNick »

sensanaty wrote: post #94
Algent wrote: 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…

How the hell can any of what you just described be legal? Do you have any articles about this? Because this is insane if true.

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, reports and even employee devices. Basically once given court permission, police would try to collect all the unrelated things which could be taken in the permission, so that they could extort you later.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#97

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

rty32 wrote: post #24
seiferteric wrote: post #5

I wonder how these "office raids" would work for remote first companies that don't have much of an office presence and with little or no physical documents and everything being stored in the cloud somewhere.

I don't know how it works in other countries, but in the US you likely still need to provide a real address for many purposes (tax, immigration if applicable, etc) The police could just find the correct targets and raid their home instead.

I have a virtualmailbox.com address - all my banks, the IRS, state voting commission and USCIS (immigration authorities) are all perfectly fine with it.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#98

Post by vlovich123 »

scotty79 wrote: post #42
lm28469 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wasn't Uber or some other US company found doing something similar? Airbnb, they had to pay like 70k of tax a few years ago. There are employees who pay as much tax as single filers lol They paid 18% less tax in 2016 than in 2013 while the number of flats available on the site went from 30k to 300k https://www.lesechos.fr/2016/08/airbnb-na-paye-que-69168-eur...

All spending should be taxed instead of income. Income is too easy to move and hide. Spending tax could be unified framework encompassing all financial activity. If you purchase anything, labor, imports, energy, stock, politicians, you should be taxed. Spending is the moment when the money shows its ugly head and does harm.

Isn’t that a hugely regressive tax?

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#99

Post by sensanaty »

I_am_tiberius wrote: post #85

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…

Why shouldn't companies pay taxes? Especially since income is taxed already and your average Joe gets screwed way more than the poor downtrodden billion dollar companies.

Re: Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

#100

Post by LunaSea »

YetAnotherNick wrote: post #96
sensanaty wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How the hell can any of what you just described be legal? Do you have any articles about this? Because this is insane if true.

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.
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