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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 johnday on Thursday June 03, 2021 @08:23AM (#27380201)
The Government is not "being paid" tax dollars[^0], it is (in principle, at least) spending and redistributing wealth in ways which benefit all citizens. UKGov releases these reports, for example https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-statistic... - good luck condensing these down to the point where they can fit in any taxpayer's head, and this is just the surface level outgoings.

> If you get hand wavy and tell me its too complicated [...]

Unfortunately, it really is too complicated. A doctorate in economics might get you a decent way towards understanding the good that taxation provides, but given that economists still have differences of opinion, maybe not a complete understanding.

[^0]: Well it is, but only a tiny proportion.

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Re:Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £22... by TimPC on Thursday June 03, 2021 @08:45AM (#27380419)
What exactly is your background where you assume your answer is correct when you know even the experts have substantial disagreements on taxation. Maybe there are a lot of legitimate disagreements on how much and which taxes because taxes aren’t a universal good but rather a necessary evil.
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Re:Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £22... by johnday on Thursday June 03, 2021 @11:56AM (#27383271)
What claims do you think I have made? All I have said above is that taxation (a) is complicated and (b) has hidden externalities, both of which are obviously correct and appropriate responses to the things being asked.
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Re:Microsoft Irish subsidiary paid zero corporate tax on £22... by neilwilson on Thursday June 03, 2021 @12:05PM (#27383402)
" A doctorate in economics might get you a decent way towards understanding the good that taxation provides"

Unlikely. Economics doesn't even understand how the monetary system works, let alone taxation.

Taxation works more like memory garbage collection than anything else. It's a cleaning up process.

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