If we can't change our economic system, our number's up

[_ronzlo_]

Google Barely Pays Any Fucking Taxes



Like Apple and Twitter, Google skirts the U.S. government's higher business taxes by funneling revenues through subsidiaries in Ireland and other tax havens. And we mean almost all its revenue. This may not be new news, but the numbers remain staggering, and disgusting. Google's Ireland-based subsidiary just reported a $22 billion profit, on which it paid a grand total of 0.17% in taxes, or $37 million. To Ireland.

As Quartz reports, this has been going on for a while, and it's totally legal. Apple does it, and that's something that raised eyebrows in the Senate last year. But yeah, they're still doing it. And so is Twitter, and Facebook.

President Obama isn't ignoring this problem, and he said in an interview Thursday that he's deeply disapproving. But I'm not clear what he wants to do about it.

What we're trying to do is to say that if you simply acquire a small company in Ireland or — some other country, to take advantage of the low tax rate, you start saying we're now magically an Irish company despite the fact that you may only have a hundred — employees there. And you've got 10,000 employees in the United States. You're just gaming the system. You are an American company. You — continue to benefit — in all kinds a ways from — being an American company. It is true that-- you know, there are a lot of things that may be legal that — probably — aren't the right thing to do by the country.

Quartz gets a bit deeper into the numbers, which include huge "administrative expenses" for Google Ireland Ltd. But no matter how you cut it, they're avoiding paying billions of dollars to the U.S., which the U.S. might want to start demanding.

Of course, it’s not fair to count tax a percentage of revenue, so here’s a slightly better measure: In 2013, net income before tax at Google Inc, the US company, was a little over 20% of revenue (p.27). If its European operations were equally profitable, that would suggest net income of €3.4 billion, making Google Ireland’s effective tax rate 0.81%—still hardly a big burden.

Google also has a Bermuda-based subsidiary for the same reason, where they were funneling $10 billion in profits as of 2011, and meanwhile you have Republicans arguing over the notion that the federal minimum wage should rise any higher than $7.25 an hour.

Quartz
Valleywag
Irish Times

[Genevieve]

Bigged up for those companies' tax evasion, not for the criticism thereof.

[Genevieve]

"libertarians" (in quotes cause most american libertarians say theyre for libertarianism but want to ban gay marriage, abortion, etc) are the last people i see ever mounting a revolution, back in may they got all excited about "operation american spring" and declared that MILLIONS WILL MARCH ON WASHINGTON AND OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT

like 50 people showed up. libertarians in the US are just a very vocal, but weak minority

everything points to a shift towards more and more right wing authoritarian government

""Libertarians"" in America are of the Cato and Mises instute ilk and are against the innitation of force; banning any victimless crime is unlibertarian. They believe in voluntary association and the right to discriminate. A Republican who calls themselves libertarian does so only because they hold some liberal positions, but don't want to lose their conservative cred (much like how Condoleeza Rice considers her pro-choice position on abortion "libertarian"), those are the "vocal minorities", but American libertarians, even the christian ones, don't believe in banning gay anything.

Libertarians don't believe in forced overthrow of the government because it's, well, an innitation of force and they're aware of the state's monopoly on firepower and guns. But things have been happening already; Bitcoin, Tor, Silkroad, 3D printers (and printed guns), the Seasteading Institute, the Mises Instute, the Freestate Project, the liberty movement, peaceful parenting (raising children without innitiating force on them), etc.

The "libertarian revolution" isn't a revolution because revolutions don't work. They're short term fixes that replace one authoritarian regime with another. Libertarians innitiate change through black market activities and education.

[_ronzlo_]

Don't want to pay taxes to the country you live in? OK. But then you try and influence politics so things wind up your way? Fuck that.

Google drops $5M on Q2 2014 lobbying: self-driving cars, health, tax, immigration

It was a busy spring for Google Inc.'s public policy office, which propelled the tech giant to a record-tying quarter for federal lobbying.

All told, Google dropped $5.03 million on lobbying from April through June, according to a disclosure report filed with the U.S. Senate. The company has matched that quarterly cash outlay only once before, when the it spent the same amount during the first quarter of 2012.

The new quarterly numbers are still being crunched by money-in-politics wonks, but Google appears to have upheld its title as the biggest-spending tech lobbying client. By comparison, Microsoft Corp. spent about $2.3 million during second quarter, and Facebook Inc. doled out $2.1 million, according to federal lobbying records.

When it comes to how tech's big spenders stacked up against other industries last quarter, oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil spent $2.8 million, and perennial pharmaceutical heavyweight Pfizer Inc. spent $1.6 million.

As I have reported, tech companies have been building their policy muscles over the last several years by increasing lobbying budgets and dabbling in new, big-budget advocacy groups. With the 2014 mid-term elections looming, tech executives like Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg have also been looking to spread the wealth between political parties by donating to Republicans.

In terms of lobbying priorities, Google was all over the map last quarter. Corporations aren't required to itemize how much they spend on lobbying for various political causes, but they are required to list the issues they engaged in. For Google, those issues included cybersecurity, patent reform, tax reform and immigration.

And then there were farther afield areas that hold promise to open new lines of business for the Web search and advertising giant, like self-driving cars. Google has been working on the technology for years, and it listed "autonomous vehicle technology" as an issue that it addressed last quarter with Congress, the Executive Office of the President, and the Department of Transportation. Government regulation of self-driving cars will become especially important as traditional automakers and Google both race to bring the technology to market.

Healthcare IT was another area that Google invested lobbying resources in from April through June. Of late, the company has floated products touching everything from contact lenses that measure diabetic insulin levels to a research project establishing genetic indicators of various health conditions.

Another niche that Google invested in last quarter was wind power — a field in which, along with solar energy, the company has already invested more than $1 billion.