Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Saturday February 22 2020, @01:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the time-to-pay-the-piper dept.

Facebook owes $9B in taxes related to Ireland deal, IRS says:

Facebook is being sued by the Internal Revenue Service, which says the social networking giant owes the US government more than $9 billion in unpaid taxes related to its decision to shift profits to its Irish subsidiary, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The lawsuit, which went to trial on Tuesday in a San Francisco court, alleges that Facebook understated the value of intellectual property it sold to its Irish subsidiary in 2010, the news agency reports. Facebook hardware chief Andrew Bosworth and Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer are expected to testify in the trial, expected to last three to four weeks.

Facebook and other large digital tech companies, including Amazon and Google, are under pressure from countries around the world for not paying what is perceived to be their share of taxes. Ireland is perceived as a popular tax refuge for tech companies because of its relatively low taxes.

Facebook's overseas subsidiaries pay royalties to their parent company for use of its trademark and access to users and platform technologies. Facebook Ireland paid Facebook more than $14 billion in royalties and other payments between 2010 and 2016, according to a court filing cited by Reuters.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @01:29AM (11 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @01:29AM (#960890) Journal

    Profit numbers can be manipulated. Revenue not to much. Companies want the same rights as people - fine - tax them based in income, same as people.

    --
    SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday February 22 2020, @03:11AM (10 children)

    by darkfeline (1030) on Saturday February 22 2020, @03:11AM (#960918) Homepage

    That's wrong though, you get double taxation. The company makes money which is taxed, then when the company pays your salary it's taxed again. This is especially bad for small business owners, who basically get double taxed on their net profit. I'm sure the government would be happy, but everyone else wouldn't.

    --
    Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @04:15AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @04:15AM (#960932)

      And then you spend the salary that's been double taxed. If you buy ordinary goods, you pay sales tax; if you buy sinful goods, you pay an extra tax upon that. Money is taxed any time it's in motion, pretty much.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @08:39AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @08:39AM (#960974)

        Money is taxed any time it's in motion, pretty much.

        That's an idea! Stop money moving and you "starve the beast".

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @06:43AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @06:43AM (#961322)

          Genius! You go first - let me know how it goes. Oh wait... you can't spend any money. S'pose you can walk over.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @04:22AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @04:22AM (#960933)

      Oh please. In that case, sales tax is double taxation since I paid income tax. So are excise taxes, local taxes, property taxes, etc. Plus that ignores the fact that most "small businesses" are partnerships, sole proprietorships, passthrough entities, or other disregarded entities that don't pay any separate business taxes at all.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @04:48AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @04:48AM (#960940)

      So then divide the tax rate by a certain amount on the percentage of revenue that goes towards paying salaries of those who also pay tax. Determine these certain amounts by what tax bracket the organization is in, to discourage tricks like "but we spent 99.3% of our revenue on salaries" that a large organization may try to pull.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:41AM

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Saturday February 22 2020, @10:41AM (#960992) Journal
      If the company is being taxed on revenue, it's not going to also be taxed on profits. So no double taxation. But it puts an end to playing games with taxes.
      --
      SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
    • (Score: 2, Informative) by shrewdsheep on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:39AM

      by shrewdsheep (5215) on Saturday February 22 2020, @11:39AM (#960998)

      Hey, it's been taxed infinitely often (and will be). The dollar you spend has been used a lot of times before and has been taxed (almost) each time. What counts in the end is how money is distributed not how you got there (you can get to each result in an infinite number of ways).

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by deimtee on Saturday February 22 2020, @12:48PM

      by deimtee (3272) on Saturday February 22 2020, @12:48PM (#961006) Journal

      That's wrong though, you get double taxation. The company makes money which is taxed, then when the company pays your salary it's taxed again.

      That's easily fixed. Stop taxing salaries.

      --
      If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by toddestan on Sunday February 23 2020, @03:04AM

      by toddestan (4982) on Sunday February 23 2020, @03:04AM (#961272)

      Well, people have something called the standard deduction, so I don't see why businesses can't have the same thing. Make the first $500,000 tax free (number picked out of thin air, may need some tuning). Small businesses will have their tax burden reduced or even eliminated for the smallest businesses. Megacorps would also get the same deduction, but it would be nothing compared to their size.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @06:51AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2020, @06:51AM (#961325)

      Fair point that the tax system is complicated.

      Whenever money moves, you do in fact rely upon the State so let's actually be honest about what that costs.

      Ayn Rand's architect thinks he created the world but he relies on a legal contracts and the basic honesty of humans. If you want to put a specific price on those things then be my guest. I'd suggest first that you go live in a country where those don't come as standard. There's plenty to choose from... everyone fucking hates it there.