News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £22... by crocal on Thursday June 03, 2021 @07:39AM (#27379738)
Taxing mega corporations is essential. I would add that you need to tax them to oblivion after shareholder’s expectations are reasonably satisfied. If you don’t, you essentially create rogue institutions with deep pockets that will attempt to take political control of the nation for their selfish interests. Adam Smith had interesting things to say about that.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £22... by danuker on Thursday June 03, 2021 @07:48AM (#27379844)
> will attempt to take political control of the nation for their selfish interests

Kind of like the current lobbying going on all over the world?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £22... by crocal on Thursday June 03, 2021 @08:01AM (#27379992)
Well, yes and no. In my opinion, lobbying in itself is not evil if it remains within reasonable limits.

One of the limiting factor is to avoid giving the said lobbies unlimited funding. That is one of the reason for taxing corporations.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £22... by fallingknife on Thursday June 03, 2021 @09:21AM (#27380873)
Why is a corporation with political power worse than a government? You will probably say that I have more control over government because of democracy. But in practice I have a stronger control mechanism over corporations, who I can choose to pay for services. When there is a problem with my Amazon package, I get quick responsive customer service. If you have a problem with government, good luck!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £22... by medvezhenok on Thursday June 03, 2021 @03:49PM (#27386404)
You have control over corporations insofar as there is actually a competitive marketplace (which is enforced by anti-trust, which is the purview of the government).

If corporations capture the market/government and become monopolies/oligopolies and you have no choices (i.e. Comcast in some regions), you will have no more recourse.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £22... by tonyedgecombe on Thursday June 03, 2021 @08:29AM (#27380252)
>Taxing mega corporations is essential.

It's not in this case because the corporation didn't pay any tax.

[ Parent | on HN ]