The IRS just dropped approximately $29 billion in back taxes on Microsoft. Oops.

[Windows Central]

Microsoft has been under audit from the IRS for the years 2004-2013. The federal agency has said that Microsoft owes an additional $29 billion in back taxes on top of the $10 billion the company had already paid.

The IRS just dropped approximately $29 billion in back taxes on Microsoft. Oops. : Read more

 

[wojtek]

corporations need to stop circumvent the laws and start paying taxes instead of being "smart" with legions of lawyers and accountants looking for "tax optimisation"...

 

[Jcmg62]

As a small business owner with nowhere to hide when it comes to paying tax, this brings me great joy.

I hope Microsoft get slammed.

I can't afford to pay an army of consultants to dream up ways of tax avoidance and borderline tax fraud.

They want us to believe that this is in the past, but let's consider the present. Microsoft are willing to pay another army of lawyers to fight the IRS rather than pay what they owe.

They haven't changed a bit.

I hope I live to see the day when effective international tax laws start cracking down on big tech.

 

[wojtek]

They want us to believe that this is in the past, but let's consider the present. Microsoft are willing to pay another army of lawyers to fight the IRS rather than pay what they owe.

They haven't changed a bit.

I hope I live to see the day when effective international tax laws start cracking down on big tech.

Hear, hear! Small companies and regular Joes pay the taxes but big corps (not only tech!) and multimilionairs have armies of smaries to avoid paing a dime :/

 

[GraniteStateColin]

As a small business owner with nowhere to hide when it comes to paying tax, this brings me great joy.

I hope Microsoft get slammed.

I can't afford to pay an army of consultants to dream up ways of tax avoidance and borderline tax fraud.

They want us to believe that this is in the past, but let's consider the present. Microsoft are willing to pay another army of lawyers to fight the IRS rather than pay what they owe.

They haven't changed a bit.

I hope I live to see the day when effective international tax laws start cracking down on big tech.

You seem to be contradicting yourself: you agree that paying taxes sucks, but you want the IRS to drill their probes and suckers as deep into MS as possible? Isn't that hypocritical? I could understand either supporting individuals and businesses successfully fending off the IRS or supporting the IRS in its collection efforts in general across the board. But you seem to be saying that you want the IRS to harshly enforce the taxes against others but not against you.

Let's be clear: no one, not even the IRS, is claiming the MS committed fraud. The dispute is over which accounts MS used to allocate payments and revenues. Tax attorneys advised MS that what they were doing was legal and proper. The IRS disagrees. There was no illegal intent. That makes this a case purely based on ambiguity in the tax code. Would any of us want legal ambiguity to be used against us?

I do understand and agree with the distinction you're making that large corporations are able to afford regulatory complexity more easily than smaller ones. And this is why regulations always help the big guys relative to the small entrepreneurs who can't afford the accounting or legal support to navigate them, but on taxes and favoring a tax judgement by the IRS? No. That's a pox on all our houses, big and small. If there's a problem, it's with the overly complex tax code, which is the government's fault, not Microsoft's.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

corporations need to stop circumvent the laws and start paying taxes instead of being "smart" with legions of lawyers and accountants looking for "tax optimisation"...

That's ridiculous. Why does Congress pass tax code with incentives to do certain things? Because they want to incentivize those behaviors. It could be onshoring employment, R&D, education, etc. After the 2009 collapse, they wanted to incent capital purchases, so they amended the code to allow full asset depreciation in the year of purchase (e.g., normally, if I buy a computer, I can treat 1/3 the cost as an expense in each of the 3 years from purchase, but if I could instead deduct it all in year 1, that would effectively make it cheaper because $1 this year is worth more than $1 next year, which has the net effect of incentivizing buying more computers). They provide tax breaks to encourage the largest corporations in a position to move the economy to engage in those activities. That is neither good nor bad, it's just the law and the incentives change with the economic times and legislative preferences.

If you don't like the law, that's absolutely fair. If you want fewer regs so that the big corps don't have the advantage they gain from lawyers and accountants, vote for a simpler tax code. But your beef is not with MS, it's with the government for a murky and ambiguous code.

It's not like MS has committed tax fraud. If that were the case, I would 100% agree with you -- stick it to them. This is just a dispute over the code itself and whether certain fund transfers were allocated to right or wrong account. If you wouldn't want the IRS auditing you when you followed the advice of your accountant, then you should not want it going after MS (or anyone else) for following theirs, whether it's a local accountant or a team of tax lawyers.

 

[Arun Topez]

As a small business owner with nowhere to hide when it comes to paying tax, this brings me great joy.

I hope Microsoft get slammed.

I can't afford to pay an army of consultants to dream up ways of tax avoidance and borderline tax fraud.

They want us to believe that this is in the past, but let's consider the present. Microsoft are willing to pay another army of lawyers to fight the IRS rather than pay what they owe.

They haven't changed a bit.

I hope I live to see the day when effective international tax laws start cracking down on big tech.

I agree. These big corps have so many loop holes and offshore accounts to avoid taxes. Microsoft is also very well known for hiring mostly contract and vendor workers that work on behalf of them as employees, instead of hiring mostly full-time permanent employees, to avoid paying taxes and benefits. And then chopping them without notice. While I normally don't side with IRS, they wouldn't have brought this up if they didn't find something sus. But I'm sure this is not just MS but also many large Corps.

 

[Village_Idiot]

All of you who want to see Microsoft get slammed. The cost of any Microsoft products will go up. Do you really think it will eat the cost?

Small businesses are going get hit too.

 

[wojtek]

All of you who want to see Microsoft get slammed. The cost of any Microsoft products will go up. Do you really think it will eat the cost?

Small businesses are going get hit too.

Small business already pay regular ta because they can't afford army of lawyers that hunt for more and more loopholes...

also - no one is forcing you to use (and pay) for MS products - there are alternatives...

 

[Village_Idiot]

Small business already pay regular ta because they can't afford army of lawyers that hunt for more and more loopholes...

also - no one is forcing you to use (and pay) for MS products - there are alternatives...

Thank you, professor, for the sage comment. Of course, I know I'm not being forced to pay Microsoft.

I had a really long explanation as to why I choose to voluntarily pay Microsoft for its amazing services it is providing me. But, the juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

By saying that this won't affect small and medium (oh and most government agencies (federal, state, and local), as well as schools (many schools use or are switching to Microsoft services). is spiteful, naive, and uneducated.

But hey, keep doing what you do best. You go! Keep thumbing your nose at Microsoft. I'm sure they are listening.

 

[wojtek]

I had a really long explanation as to why I choose to voluntarily pay Microsoft for its amazing services it is providing me. But, the juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

So if it's so amazing you wouldn't mind paying any amount for this bliss? inni't mate?

By saying that this won't affect small and medium (oh and most government agencies (federal, state, and local), as well as schools (many schools use or are switching to Microsoft services). is spiteful, naive, and uneducated.

clappity clap that those have become hostages of "the ecosystem"... shrug

But hey, keep doing what you do best. You go! Keep thumbing your nose at Microsoft. I'm sure they are listening.

It's you who is butthurt I guess your nick was selected deliberately

 

[Village_Idiot]

So if it's so amazing you wouldn't mind paying any amount for this bliss? inni't mate?



clappity clap that those have become hostages of "the ecosystem"... shrug



It's you who is butthurt I guess your nick was selected deliberately

I'm stating reality. I suppose Microsoft could just lay a bunch of people off. Like a few thousand, or so. That would help. But, essentially saying, "Yeah! Stick to the man!" shows a fundamental lack of education.

Microsoft is a business, not a charity.