Re:The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions
by dbingham on Thursday October 21, 2010 @10:41PM
(#1818378)
A loophole by definition is a problem with a law that allows people to break the spirit of the law while not breaking the letter of it.
Writing laws is like programming. There are bugs. But its even harder than programming because fixing the bugs isn't as simple as finding the spot in the code and releasing a patch. It means bringing the laws back up for discussion and debating with 100+ other people about the best way to fix the bug. And not all those people actually have fixing the bug in mind. So it isn't as simple as the government enacting laws to close the loopholes.
By taking advantage of the loopholes like this Google is acting like black hat hackers who take advantage of the bugs. They are taking advantage of the bug in the government's code that allows them to use the government's services with out paying for them.
Re:The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions
by dbingham on Thursday October 21, 2010 @12:07PM
(#1816050)
In the analogy it's not the government who's sandwich Google is taking -- its the average citizen. The government is just a proxy organization representing the citizens in a much more direct way than a company represents its stock holders.
If the government wants Google to pay taxes, they should enact laws that establish that. It's as simple as that.
> I think I could do better with my tax money than the US government. But then, that's not my choice to make.
At least, it's not your choice to make yourself. When you agree to live in a certain place, you generally have to play by the rules.