Further concretes my calendar reminder to drop prime when it runs out. I have Amazon stock and expect this from a company but it’s also angering.
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How the hell do they make 11 billion in profit?
I’m not a big fan of taxes, but this article forgets to mention the $129m tax-rebate Amazon is claiming, putting their effective tax rate at -1%.
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Ok, so Amazon is a corporation and I am not near as well versed in corporate tax law as I am with individual tax law, but I do know a few things.
First is corporations pay income tax as well as those who share in those profits, essentially causing the income to be taxed twice. So while Amazon itself doesn’t pay that income tax thanks to various reasons, the people who have a percentage share of that profit do pay their income tax.
It appears that Amazon is grossly abusing the system, however, they are simply using the overly-generous tax breaks given to them by various governments which is where the true problem lies (at least as far as income tax is concerned, generally tax breaks are given when the economic impact is deemed more valuable than the simple income tax).
Also with businesses there is a depreciation schedule that, depending on how it is set-up for that particular company, can cause an operating loss even if the business itself turns a cash profit. This is because a company can use long-term properties as an expense that decreases every year. So a farm that buys a tractor gets to write off a portion of that cost each year. Yes it says profit which should be calculated after the depreciation expense is accounted for, but it’s worth mentioning as many people ignore its existence and impact.
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Absolutely disgusting that this is what the global economy / nations allow to happen. How do you pay zero in taxation in a country where you have social programs and the idea to equalize? Also how do you justify paying that when you don’t even pay employees the right salary or wage to match inflation? Die commerce die. Die Amazon die.
First of all it’s because they can get away with it, they have most governments eating out of their palms. Don’t get me started on the whole Singularity University crap, makes my brain hurt that those in power can be so stupid.
If you don’t want them to evade taxes, it’s simple, stop buying their shit, stop giving them your data, mark all commercials you see as inappropriate, Like everything or nothing. If every single person can help two other people understand that there’s a problem, and so forth. It’s not a long way for it to resolve itself.
In Denmark, the government willingly bend over time after time. Recently, Apple, Facebook and Google have been building data centers in here. All of these are supposed to run off of green energy, therefore the government decided to establish wind farms. These wind farms are paid for with tax payer money, while around 70% of their capacity is already reserved for the data center. Here’s the kicker, everyone has to pay around €0.10 per kW for electricity from these wind farms, except of course the data center owners, they get it free of charge.
A few years ago, Goldman Sachs bought the primary power plant for the capital, Dong Energy, for peanuts. They juggled around some numbers, and sold it again at a considerable profit. Strangely, the politician involved in this sale, happened to get a high end position within Goldman Sachs.
And there are many more situations like this, Serum institut (makes vaccinations) was sold for less than what it cost to make the campaign for the sales. Goldman Sachs affiliate company pushes out one IT System after another which fails hard, and we’re talking systems which each cost in the billions of euros. Roughly every 2-3 years there’s a scandal that blows over after two weeks.
Every single time someone somewhere with power sets things like this in motion, they end up in a sweet position afterwards, with an affiliate of the buyer.
That’s why companies like Amazon can get away with it, pure and simple. McDonald’s buys recipes from sister companies for absurd amounts, since it’s an investment, it’s tax deductible.
It’s all rotten to the core, and it will continue to be as long as we act like sheep and head over heals give them everything they need to predict our behavior and therefore can be steered. Our anger shouldn’t be directed at the mega corps pulling this off, but those that allow it to happen.
Oh, nearly forgot the best one. Some generally smarter people than my government, have been milking the Danish tax system, a system made by Goldman Sachs affiliate by the way. Ended up costing around 10% of the national yearly budget, and they still can’t figure out what happened.
List goes on and on, becomes worse and worse for every passing year.
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Jeff Bezos true Welfare Queen Supreme™
Absolutely, this is why I actually applude Eric Schmidt when he was confronted about the tax situation. More or less stated that you let us do it, when we have to pay taxes we will but till then we will game the system
Whatever about the news source it was a quick lookup on lunch break its the context.