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Amazon is a master of tax avoidance
- Clubber 9y agoYou can swap Amazon for any company or individual large enough to hire an accountant. A good one is worth their weight in gold.
- craftyguy 9y agoExactly. Since this article is meant to repeat Trump's rhetoric, how about we look at his companies and their history of avoiding taxes, or his (presumable) avoidance of paying taxes?
- lemoncucumber 9y agoIf only there were some sort of well-established norm requiring presidential candidates to publicly disclose their tax returns...
- Clubber 9y ago>norm requiring presidential candidates to Apparently not required.
- SpikeDad 9y agoIf only we had a president who cares about well-established norms of integrity and truthfulness.
- gt_ 9y agoIf only we had a democracy and campaign process that valued informed voters more than monied interests
- banned1 9y agoIf only citizens would show up to vote for their presumed slam-dunk candidates!
- cuckcuckspruce 9y agoIf only the media wouldn't feed the electorate the message that voting is pointless because they already know who is going to win in a landslide!
- paulddraper 9y agoMitt Romney got blasted for not revealing his returns (they were being ammended IIRC). The media made this whole thing about it for weeks. Apparently it didn't matter as much 4 years later. The media are a fickle bunch.
- setr 9y agoThey did the same thing for trump. And for every other thing he ever did. I'm not sure how you could imagine otherwise; anything that could potentially be construed as offensive in some fashion, was reported as such. Most channels absolutely hated him. But he became president anyways. maybe as a result of it.
- gringoDan 9y agoAny business that doesn't do everything it (legally) can to minimize its tax burden is doing a disservice to its shareholders. Follow the incentives - no individual or business knowingly pays more taxes than it is obligated to.
- lovich 9y agoI mostly agree with you, but some point, say for instance if 75% of the population hokds your shares through 401ks, is the company doing more harm to shareholders by hurting society for short term gain? Everyone joining in on funds like vanguard is making this question become less of an academic one
- _rpd 9y ago> hurting society The same money is still spent, just by different decision makers. Shareholders may very well prefer the decisions being made by the private enterprise.
- lovich 9y agoHow many shareholders, by percentage of total shareholders, can actually influence any given large corporation currently? Most shareholders preferences don't mean more than the air they use to say them
- whb07 9y agoThis is in itself is very short in analysis. What do you think people do when they get more money? They spend it. If they don't directly spend it either by cashing out, borrowing against it, etc. The fund manager controlling that savings fund will deploy some of that capital and put it to work. If the money is saved and then put to work like just established, then it becomes a multiplier. If the money is taken as a tax and spent by the government it doesn't become a multiplier. Take $10 sitting in savings. It can be spent/invested buying a good and that circulates to all the intermediaries and suppliers around the economy. That is not what happens when you tax Peter to pay Paul.
- awalton 9y ago...as is any multibillion dollar public corporation. They're literally chartered to avoid taxes, and are willing to pay accounting firms millions of dollars to find new and innovative loopholes. The tax code could be simpler and eliminate the holes, but these companies love the complication because it allows them to invent these things, so they actually lobby for even more complicated, convoluted rules at any given chance.