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> Yes, please tax these companies out of town so they can take their corp taxes I'm confused. You think the companies are valuable because they pay taxes, but

> Yes, please tax these companies out of town so they can take their corp taxes I'm confused. You think the companies are valuable because they pay taxes, but shouldn't be taxed? Truthfully, this is only a return to the previous state of affairs, a 1.5% payroll tax isn't that painful - the impact on Twitter would be less than 5 headcount. The reason companies like Twitter originally sought a tax break is because of how stock options are taxed. If you work for twitter for several years and never cash in your stock options, they have to bank the potential payroll tax they would pay on the purchase value of these options. So many employees never cash in on options that this creates a kind of snowball that freezes a ton of capital. In effect, this means that current investors in a company like Twitter are banking money to pay the taxes of future potential employee-investors. I agree this doesn't make economic sense, I don't think wholly opposing payroll tax is a reasonable reaction to it. I don't know what the solution is, but it's amusing to see this come full circle.

mc32 10y ago
NYC used to have one... Maybe it still does. I don't agree with it. Tax them on profits, whatever, but be fair. Don't go out of your way to tax a class of business in special ways, unless you're trying to disincentivize them. So, of course all companies should pay taxes their fair share of taxes. Just don't construct special schemes to tax a class of businesses. Imagine Detroit saying, we're broke, let's tax car companies by the amount of potential pollutants their end products could produce. Hey, they'd have a windfall till Tennessee says, hey, GM, wanna come over here? We'll tax you as a normal state would (as an exaggerated example).
kspaans 10y ago
Interesting how the interplay of payroll tax and stock options creates a capital issue like that! On a sidenote, do you know why payroll taxes are charged to the employer, rather than showing up on the employee's paycheque?

mc32 10y ago

NYC used to have one... Maybe it still does. I don't agree with it. Tax them on profits, whatever, but be fair. Don't go out of your way to tax a class of business in special ways, unless you're trying to disincentivize them. So, of course all companies should pay taxes their fair share of taxes. Just don't construct special schemes to tax a class of businesses. Imagine Detroit saying, we're broke, let's tax car companies by the amount of potential pollutants their end products could produce. Hey, they'd have a windfall till Tennessee says, hey, GM, wanna come over here? We'll tax you as a normal state would (as an exaggerated example).

kspaans 10y ago

Interesting how the interplay of payroll tax and stock options creates a capital issue like that! On a sidenote, do you know why payroll taxes are charged to the employer, rather than showing up on the employee's paycheque?