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Zoom will pay zero federal taxes due to tax credits from previous years
- incrudible 6y agoFact check: True, but misleading. I'll cite: "The biggest reason for Zoom's de minimis tax bill is outsized executive compensation. Zoom paid $580 million in stock compensation alone in 2020, much of it likely to a handful of top executives, according to a calculation by CBS MoneyWatch based on the company's latest financial filings." At some point, somebody will have to pay taxes on selling that stock. Or if they never sell it, at least they will prop up the stock market, so the Fed has to do less of that with everyone else's money.
- refurb 6y agoDid they really write “likely to a handful of top executives”. Stock compensation is pretty typical for tech companies. But as long as they put “likely” in front of that statement they felt it was appropriate? I mean, they could look at 10-Ks. To see how the executive are compensated.
- datavirtue 6y agoFact checking and editing has fallen out of favor in the age of facebook headline sharing.
- TheChaplain 6y agoCorrect me if I am wrong, wouldn't that mean if the stock value goes down and is sold at a much lower price, the collected tax would be much less? And isn't it possible to reduce tax even more from capital losses from stocks?
- sokoloff 6y agoYes to the second, which is inherently self-consistent policy in a taxation system that taxes income/profits. The first depends on the type of compensation and whether a prior 83(b) election was made (and taxes paid at that time). But in general, the money’s going to get taxed and if the taxpayer is a US citizen, the US will get its cut.
- hahahahe 6y agoWhy would Xi Jinping pay taxes to the US?
- refurb 6y ago* In fact, Zoom's 2020 tax bill will likely be less than zero. That's because Zoom, according to its financial statements, booked a $300 million tax credit last year to use against future earnings.* So basically tax credit for prior year losses. Not sure this is an issue?
- keenreed 6y agoMy understanding is Zoom is a chinese company. Federal government under Trump was not ready for pandemic, it did not provide any infrastructure for remote learning or work from home. Instead you relied on free infrastructure provided by China. Federal government should pay to Zoom!!!
- f6v 6y agoMy school(in Europe) used MS Teams. I’d argue you didn’t HAVE to go with Zoom.
- keenreed 6y agoWell, most US schools did go with Zoom!
- Shadonototro 6y agowhat a shame microsoft infected EU with their products EU leaders should be ashamed, nothing was done to promote EU products specially in education sector where it's super hard for private companies to get credits, it's always microsoft, for some reasons..
- f6v 6y ago> EU leaders should be ashamed, nothing was done to promote EU products What would they do it for? Inaction is the best course of action for such a bureaucracy.
- ephextom 6y agoOr, told another way: For several years, Zoom has spent much more than it has earned ($300M more in fact), on expenses like staff, rent, services and supplies from other companies - which will have generated large amounts of income taxes, payroll taxes, sales taxes, franchise taxes, municipal taxes, etc. This past year they have grown dramatically, and will have generated even more income taxes, franchise taxes, municipal taxes, etc than ever before, and also some present or future capital gains taxes due to the huge increase in the company's valuation. They just don't have to pay federal income tax yet, until the net income they make exceeds the net losses they recorded over previous years.
- jokethrowaway 6y agoReally rich people will always find some way to get loopholes enshrined in law or find a foreign country willing to do it. There is no way around. The only people paying disproportionately more in taxes are middle class people. Incidentally that also helps rich people by having less competition at the top. If you want fairness, no-one should be forced to pay taxes, everyone should pay for the services they use and there should be no corruptible centralised entity who can decide for everyone.
- rs999gti 6y ago>If you want fairness, no-one should be forced to pay taxes Agree > everyone should pay for the services they use Usage taxes and VATs are always voted down because they hit poor and middle class the hardest, at least in the US. > and there should be no corruptible centralised entity who can decide for everyone. But muh roadz!
- addicted 6y agoThis sounds extremely reasonable?
- MrPowers 6y agoFederal income taxes are highly economically inefficient. They create a huge deadweight loss of taxation (productive employees wasting their time helping corporations comply with tax law). Land and gas are economically efficient to tax. They don't have a big deadweight loss of taxation and create positive incentives. The Federal government creates tax laws that corporations need to follow. The government added the concept of net operating loss carryforwards to the tax law. Not looks like government officials are complaining about the rules they added to the tax code. I used to work with the Section 482 tax laws for pricing among multinational enterprises. I found the laws to be complicated and ridiculously impractical, particularly the residual profit split method for valuing intellectual property. Many companies used these laws to shift IP offshore. Politicians are made about the tax structures that were created following their laws. This isn't a democrats / republicans thing. Both political parties are adding tons of rules to an already bloated US tax code. And congress is constantly upset about the rules they have created.
- Dracophoenix 6y ago>> "Land and gas tax are economically efficient." Isn't the former already expressed in the form of property tax? And if so, I wouldn't say it's economically efficient. Calculating the value of land/real estate is a blackbox (at least at the local level) only to be known and determined by the taxing entity (i.e government).
- MrPowers 6y agoLand taxes are different than property taxes. Property taxes are on the building, land taxes are just on the land. Land isn't a perfect tax, still needs to be levied as you mentioned, but it cannot be hidden and incentivizes land owners to use the land for its "highest and best use". There are no complicated depreciation schedules, credits, deductions, etc. for land. It's also highly progressive.
- datavirtue 6y agoThe real travesty is the excessive regulation preventing innovation and generally slowing the speed of business. If it were not for all the unnessesary ham-fisted regulation that currently exists small businesses and entrepreneurs would be better positioned to enter various markets. But no, in addition to governmental testing of baby cribs you have a government that also tests the amount of force required to light a match or the noise level of a child's cap gun. We have an epic event based around automobile safety that turbo charged government regulation and created a new bureaucracy that found that there was no safety concern regarding the very car that was used for establishing that very bureaucracy. By all means, keep complaining about taxes and regulation. They sure could use another round of debate.