3 ms·
It's almost like the expectation that companies pay proper taxes to the countries they exist in IS pretty straight forward.
by mdszy 7y ago
It's almost like the expectation that companies pay proper taxes to the countries they exist in IS pretty straight forward.
- pbalau 7y agoBut really is not, since FB exists in US, UK, Ireland, Israel, France and many other places (see [0]). And not all the value was created in the same place. You could have (and I know examples) a piece of tech being developed in US and not make any money until a team in London picks it up, tweaks the crap out of it and makes some millions. And you need to note that engineers in London are employees of Facebook UK, a different legal entity than Facebook US. Then there are sales and solutions (custom tech built for various customers). The point is, attributing wealth to a particular area is not that clear cut. And I guess this is what this lawsuit is all about, figure out how to do that. [0] https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/ https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/
- ska 7y agoWhile this is clearly true in general, it's exceedingly unlikely that attributing wealth mostly in the places where it is taxed less is really supported by the types of interactions you are talking about. International development is complex, sure, but let's not pretend particularly with respect to Ireland that corporate structuring for tax avoidance isn't actually most (by $, not effort/people) of what is going on in practice.