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Big Companies That Do Not Pay a Lot of Taxes - Does It Put You Off?

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for instance, it was reported by the BBC that Amazon in the UK paid £1.7m in taxes despite profits almost trebling to £72.3m, and deferred a portion of its 2017 tax bill

TBH it doesn't put me off - it just means the government ought to work harder at reviewing tax matters

hspexy

over a year ago

What do you think of this?+20 points

zerocenturyzeroover a year ago

4 WAYS BIG COMPANIES AVOID TAXES

Strategically incorporating. Companies are able to choose where they incorporate, and by opting to create intermediate holding companies and subsidiaries in tax havens or low tax regime countries, they can significant reduce their tax burdens. This allows companies to syphon their profits to foreign subsidiaries where the tax rate is much more favorable, a practice known as offshore sheltering.

Accelerated depreciation. Tax law allows companies to expense the cost of their capital at a quicker rate than it actually wears out, allowing a company to declare less income and defer tax payment to several years down the road as the long as the company continues to invest its capital.

Offering stock options to employees. Companies often use offering stock options to employees as a way to decrease their tax bill. That’s because when companies offer stocks to employees, they can write off the difference between the price the employee paid for the stock and the market value as tax deduction. When companies offer significant amounts of stock to senior employees, the difference can add up pretty significantly and can turn into a substantial deduction.

Tax breaks. In some cases, companies don’t even have to go out of their way to significantly reduce their tax burden. All they have to do is take advantage of pre-existing tax breaks. For example, the US federal tax code grants generous tax breaks to a whole range of different sectors, including the oil and gas sector, the alternative energy sector, and the video game and film production sector. These tax breaks tend to benefit the biggest companies. Over the course of the past 8 years, the US government doled out around $285 billion in tax subsidies and breaks, and close to half of that went to just 25 countries. AT&T was granted a staggering $38 billion in tax breaks, while Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase had $31.4 billion and $22.2 billion shaved off their tax bills respectively.

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