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My perspective: Tax for the middle class is insanely high. Seeing companies like FB, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. pull off insane stunts to "minimize" tax paymen
by wukerplank 8y ago
My perspective: Tax for the middle class is insanely high. Seeing companies like FB, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. pull off insane stunts to "minimize" tax payments (because of their responsibility to the shareholder). They make (and hoard) insane amounts of money without giving back.
You might say, "if you don't like them boycott them". For Amazon and Apple it's easy. Google and FB are inescapable if you need to advertise.
- joejerryronnie 8y agoThanks for your perspective! Is there any local push back on the high middle class tax rates?
- zeroc8 8y agoAnother Austrian here. The problem is not the rate per se, but the fact that those tax evasion practices of international conglomerates put local small and medium businesses at an unfair and unjustified disadvantage.
- puzzle 8y agoAs an aside, Google has owned land in Kronstorf for a decade. Presumably they pay property tax on it, even if it's not used? https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/11/21/google-confirms-new-data-center-in-austria https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/11/21/goog... Anyway, a little after that came out, I asked someone about the project's timeline. They didn't go into details, but they weren't optimistic. I don't know what has been going on between the two sides, but, ten years later, the land is still undeveloped. In the meantime, Google has built, expanded or announced data centers in Finland, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands and Denmark. I wonder what separates those from Austria.