Microsoft Admits Keeping $92 Billion Offshore to Avoid Paying $29 Billion in U.S. Taxes

[Newsjock]

Source: International Business Times
By David Sirota

Microsoft Corp. is currently sitting on almost $29.6 billion it would owe in U.S. taxes if it repatriated the $92.9 billion of earnings it is keeping offshore, according to disclosures in the company’s most recent annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount of money that Microsoft is keeping offshore represents a significant spike from prior years, and the levies the company would owe amount to almost the entire two-year operating budget of the company’s home state of Washington.

The company says it has "not provided deferred U.S. income taxes" because it says the earnings were generated from its "non-U.S. subsidiaries” and then "reinvested outside the U.S.” Tax experts, however, say that details of the filing suggest the company is using tax shelters to dodge the taxes it owes as a company domiciled in the United States.

In response to a request for comment, a Microsoft spokesperson referred International Business Times to 2012 U.S. Senate testimony from William J. Sample, the company’s corporate vp for worldwide tax. He said: “Microsoft’s tax results follow from its business, which is fundamentally a global business that requires us to operate in foreign markets in order to compete and grow. In conducting our business at home and abroad, we abide by U.S. and foreign tax laws as written. That is not to say that the rules cannot be improved -- to the contrary, we believe they can and should be.”

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/microsoft-admits-keeping-92-billion-offshore-avoid-paying-29-billion-us-taxes-1665938

[oldandhappy]

1. And they want the fire trucks to come when called

and highways to be available to carry their products. It is called cheating.

[pbmus]

3. It is called TAX EVASION ...

Which is a criminal act when done by individuals but not by corporations .... they are protected under our laws, written by politicians paid for by corporations.

[woo me with science]

9. Thank you.

We are ruled by criminals.

[Igel]

12. It's called tax avoidance.

I do it every year. I take deductions the law says I can take and otherwise arrange my finances to minimize taxes. For example, I elect to have my employer's contribution for my health insurance paid in a way that it's not taxable. I avoid paying taxes I don't have to pay.

When I moved from NY to TX I knew I'd have to divide my income for the purposes of state income tax. I'd pay NYS taxes for the income I was paid while in residence in NY. I'd pay TX income taxes for the portion I was paid in TX. TX has no income tax. I freelanced at the time and had a pile of invoices ready to go as soon as I arrived in TX. That income was credited to my TX time and wasn't subject to NYS taxes. Legal? Yup. Tax evasion? Nope. Tax avoidance? Yup.

Tax avoidance is legal. Otherwise, come next April I expect you not to take the standard deduction or to itemize your deductions, not to claim dependents. If you pay self-employment tax, I expect you not to deduct the portion you can from your gross income. You should do what you can to pay as much tax as possible. Otherwise you'd have such a guilty conscience, thinking that you're a criminal.

[pbmus]

14. Ok legal tax evasion

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Newsjock.

[PSPS]

4. Thanks for the free ride, suckers.

Now don't bother me while my small family is ensconced in my modest house:

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Kicking. Thank you. nt

[Cha]

6. No thanks a lot, microsoft.. 'cause you need the money sooo much and fuck the USA, eh? Infra-

structure, anyone?

thanks Nj

[woo me with science]

7. I say we let them keep it.

Because if they give it back now, our government will find a way to use it to bomb Canada.

[woo me with science]

8. K&R 92 billion. BILLION.

while we are lectured about demanding ponies. While we can't even get a fucking transportation bill to pave the damned roads without "pension smoothing."

Fuck every corporate apologist.

[eShirl]

10. shame

on them

[Trillo]

11. Must be nice to be a corporation.

Oh, to dream of an equal world: I think I'll keep my money in my back pocket, instead of the front pocket. When it's kept in the back pocket, no taxes are due. Taxes are only due on money in the front pocket.

[woo me with science]

13. But let's cut FOOD STAMPS!

Gotta pay for the new war somehow! Signed, pissed off!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025435545

[kentuck]

15. A frigging disgrace...

Second only to wounding and killing our young women in war.

[Initech]

16. This shit needs to end now!!!

They're just hoarding wealth at this point.

[woo me with science]

17. kick

[woo me with science]

18. kick

[woo me with science]

19. But we're PENSION SMOOTHING and cutting FOOD STAMPS.

[Jenoch]

20. Apparently,

Microsoft does not need this $92 Billion in cash to operate their U.S. operations.

What can be done to encourage them to repatriate this huge sum of money?

Pissing and moaning about corporate greed on an internet message board apparently will not change the status quo.

[woo me with science]

21. kick

[rjj621]

22. Sadly not surprising

Nor is Burger King or any other corporation trying to relocate to another country or shift money to avoid the insane 30% or so tax rate.