Discussion
  • Read More
    XrdsAlumHamilton Nolan
    5/20/16 4:00pm

    There’s a lot of hoarding going on at the moment, period-endstop. More than enough to see a company like Apple through some lean years or to set money aside for a huge acquisition. Sometimes I get the sense they’ve been saving up in anticipation of a truly wrenching shift.

    Even with tax avoidance, the overseas part is almost beside the point now, since large corporations are in the process of officially divorcing themselves from nation-states (TPP and TTIP show the intent very clearly even if they don’t pass).

    Serious question, Nolan (not a Hulkster gotcha): official registration in Deleware or NY or wherever aside, do you consider Gawker Media an American corporation? Does the rest of the staff? Does Denton? If so, why?

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      WonderZimmsXrdsAlum
      5/20/16 4:17pm

      I’d be very curious to see this answer, but I won’t hold my breath for it...

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      bassguitarheroXrdsAlum
      5/20/16 4:17pm

      I would imagine people see Gawker as an American company, although that phrase doesn’t really have any distinction anymore. But at the end of the day, a company’s sole purpose is to make profit (this is why companies can never be considered “people” IMO), and running the company out of a tax shelter makes more money, so it starts to become bad business practice to NOT take advantage of every available loophole.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Jerry-NetherlandHamilton Nolan
    5/20/16 4:02pm

    Not only is that offshore money not paying US taxes, it’s not circulating in the US economy, nor, particularly anywhere else. It just sits and waits for some repatriation amnesty to get it back tax free - which they will lobby for until they get it. And they will get it.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      kyngfishJerry-Netherland
      5/20/16 4:42pm

      Yes it is, it’s circulating in low risk, low gain loans and investments overseas, which is precisely what the rich are also doing with their money here, so really, not doing much societal good.

      Your point remains the same, but a slight distinction, it’s not like they have it in Scrooge McDuckian stockpiles in Asia.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      My Name is JugdishJerry-Netherland
      5/20/16 4:47pm

      Not sure how much that cash would actually circulate if/when it comes back. Other than perhaps the 1% buying their mistress another yacht.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Netflix and ShillHamilton Nolan
    5/20/16 3:54pm

    Let’s just... start seizing the homes of CEOs and Republican Congressmen, until they work it out.

    It would really just be a more active form of lobbying. I’m sure they’ll understand.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      yousayclamato, joeNetflix and Shill
      5/20/16 3:56pm

      Another problem solved by looting!

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      CHAMPAGNE SHARKEiSHANetflix and Shill
      5/20/16 3:56pm

      sounds totally constitutional and doable.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    My British German car is super reliableHamilton Nolan
    5/20/16 3:55pm

    I have an idea, if a tech company refuses to pay taxes in the us, their patents are not enforceable in the us. You want law and order, you pay your taxes.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      NicoMy British German car is super reliable
      5/20/16 4:10pm

      Oooo, I like it.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Kenhe LoginMy British German car is super reliable
      5/23/16 10:48am

      This is particularly apt because of the number of companies that have subsidiaries which hold the ownership of patents in low tax countries like Ireland. They want protection for intellectual property but don’t want to pay for it.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Dave Hamilton Nolan
    5/20/16 4:05pm

    Clinton’s fault. (next 500 comments or so)

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      tzimtzum does not existDave
      5/20/16 4:12pm

      The poor dears! When’s it going to be their turn!

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      XrdsAlumDave
      5/20/16 4:16pm

      Reagan’s fault (always). Clinton is just a side effect.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    heyitsmemanHamilton Nolan
    5/20/16 4:04pm

    The tax revenue from that cash would just be used to finance a war somewhere. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it would in any way be used to make our lives better.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Nicoheyitsmeman
      5/20/16 4:09pm

      They'd also probably give congress another raise and give out some more corporate tax breaks.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Meanwhile, Elsewhereheyitsmeman
      5/21/16 12:18am

      Well, it might lower my tax burden, so good enough.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Tidal TownHamilton Nolan
    5/20/16 4:30pm

    “…hey, that’s enough to pay our national credit card bill!.”

    Where is there line between “banks took advantage of people hence the astounding amount of debt!” and “you agreed to the deal, be responsible and pay back your debt”?

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      pre-emptive sighTidal Town
      5/20/16 5:04pm

      I don’t know, why don’t we asks the banks who needed bailouts?

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Tidal Townpre-emptive sigh
      5/20/16 5:10pm

      <insert whynotboth.gif here>

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    My Name is JugdishHamilton Nolan
    5/20/16 4:52pm

    Was paying your “fair share” of taxes ever patriotic? Or has it always been ‘Murican to do everything in your power to avoid paying $1 in tax? I’m too young to know of a time before maximizing shareholder value being the only consideration (as opposed to helping the world or even just your own employees).

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      mmsfcMy Name is Jugdish
      5/21/16 3:22am

      Yes.

      And, not only were taxes considered due and appropriate, they were the foundation of the US fight for independence. Taxes were being paid to England, without much of anything coming back to the colonies. Taxation is the way the governed pay for the systems they need to maintain a civil society and create a functioning economy.

      Ronald Reagan took the burgeoning Libertarian movement, exemplified by Ayn Rand and her rich white guys, and melded their demonstrably false meritocracy concept with the fears of xenophobic, racist Christians in the South to vilify government, bureaucracy, and taxation. Taxes were being used to pay the weak and the lazy, to integrate schools, and to give birth control to whores.

      Reagan also capitalized on Nixon’s fall to mislead people into associating corruption with socialism then conflated socialism with Communism and Stalin. State run things like public health services, social security, disability, transportation, public education, the EPA, and National Park Service were all, to some degree, privatized. As with all for profit ventures, it’s cost us more to get less in all those areas.

      While governor of California, he said that there was no such thing as the mentally ill, only the weak and the criminal. By separating the uses of taxation from the people affected by it, Reagan began and others maintain the dehumanization of humans and the legal personhood of corporations.

      http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/…

      Here, too:

      “As the Congressional Research Service reported last year (which, incidentally, drew a powerful attack from conservatives), average rates for the top 0.01 percent of taxpayers dropped from over 60 percent just after World War II to the mid-20-percent range in recent years”

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Lee Adama's Moral CenterHamilton Nolan
    5/20/16 4:41pm

    For the companies themselves, it’s a stalemate: they hint that maybe they would be tempted to bring some of this cash on home if the government would offer them a sweet tax break in order to do so. Obama, in fact, tried to strike a one-time deal in order to bring that money home, but it didn’t get through Congress.

    Because that addresses the root problem, right? It’s not like the unconstrained mobility of global capital will immediately begin re-accumulating in overseas tax havens while awaiting the next “one-time” tax break or anything.

    Source.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      ThidrekrHamilton Nolan
      5/20/16 4:02pm

      Although the U.S. is loath to do this with anything, they need to start taking a good look at how taxes are structured in other first-world Western countries and start adopting similar rules. Corporations love consistency!

      Right now, the U.S. tax code is a complicated, bloated mess—U.S. expats absolutely know what I mean—and, of course, a multinational corporation is going to keep its international profits abroad if it can, “in the interest of its shareholders.” The key is to set rules and rates in line with the rest of the Western world, and you’ll likely discover that these funds will start making their way home. Making laws even messier (like Obama—FATCA) or making childish threats (like Trump) isn’t going to fix this.

      Reply
      <
      • Read More
        My Name is JugdishThidrekr
        5/20/16 4:49pm

        Good god Lemon... FATCA is a nightmare. Great idea in theory... horrific to actually implement/comply with.

        Reply
        <
      • Read More
        dp4mThidrekr
        5/20/16 5:38pm

        And we have CRS (Common Reporting Standard) coming in near-term for a global-FATCA-esque thing... oy...

        Reply
        <