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Google subsidiary moved $75bn profits through Ireland

43 points by elsewhen 5y ago

merricksb 5y ago
Earlier discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26848214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26848214
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aparsons 5y ago
Is making more money legally inherently evil? Tax avoidance is ugly, but I’m strongly of the opinion that one must “hate the game, not the player”. Yes, tax avoidance is evil in the sense of “someone else is paying for it”, but I don’t see how that’s inherently different from profit-maximization which is a central tenet in capitalism. Different avenues, but the end result is indistinguishable. Additionally, I’d also like to highlight that Ireland has prospered through its meticulously designed tax laws.
- Dracophoenix 5y ago
  What evil about paying only what's owed? How is there someone else paying for it exactly? That's like saying saving money is robbing a store of a purchase. There's an implication here that someone's unstated or unwritten expectations are an obligation to fulfill and that exercising any options outside of said expectations is/should be a punishable violation.
christkv 5y ago
All profits should be booked in the country of the revenue and no transfer pricing should be allowed for digital goods and only BoM for physical goods with severe financial penalties on companies who fudge the BoM.
- elric 5y ago
  Doesn't that effectively kill small companies, who don't have time or money to spend on figuring out how to deal with taxes in 200 countries?
  - rtkwe 5y ago
    Depends on the complexity. Most of the taxes would be the relatively simple sales tax where it's just the price of the good that matters. You'd probably see a lot more centralized stores acting as a go between for companies to handle selling things in each country.
  - christkv 5y ago
    We are mostly talking about massive multinationals who have entities in all countries they do business as they hire sales people etc but then funnel all the profits out of the country to Ireland and offshore entities. A SaaS in the UK selling something to someone in France is unlikely to have an Ireland -> Bermuda transfer price setup and will pay sales taxes in France and corporate taxes in the UK.
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43 points by elsewhen 5y ago

merricksb 5y ago

Earlier discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26848214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26848214

deleted 5y ago

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aparsons 5y ago

Is making more money legally inherently evil? Tax avoidance is ugly, but I’m strongly of the opinion that one must “hate the game, not the player”. Yes, tax avoidance is evil in the sense of “someone else is paying for it”, but I don’t see how that’s inherently different from profit-maximization which is a central tenet in capitalism. Different avenues, but the end result is indistinguishable. Additionally, I’d also like to highlight that Ireland has prospered through its meticulously designed tax laws.

Dracophoenix 5y ago
What evil about paying only what's owed? How is there someone else paying for it exactly? That's like saying saving money is robbing a store of a purchase. There's an implication here that someone's unstated or unwritten expectations are an obligation to fulfill and that exercising any options outside of said expectations is/should be a punishable violation.

christkv 5y ago

All profits should be booked in the country of the revenue and no transfer pricing should be allowed for digital goods and only BoM for physical goods with severe financial penalties on companies who fudge the BoM.

elric 5y ago
Doesn't that effectively kill small companies, who don't have time or money to spend on figuring out how to deal with taxes in 200 countries?
- rtkwe 5y ago
  Depends on the complexity. Most of the taxes would be the relatively simple sales tax where it's just the price of the good that matters. You'd probably see a lot more centralized stores acting as a go between for companies to handle selling things in each country.
- christkv 5y ago
  We are mostly talking about massive multinationals who have entities in all countries they do business as they hire sales people etc but then funnel all the profits out of the country to Ireland and offshore entities. A SaaS in the UK selling something to someone in France is unlikely to have an Ireland -> Bermuda transfer price setup and will pay sales taxes in France and corporate taxes in the UK.

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