Facebook stand-off

[stockhausen]

Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers alleged to contain revelations on data and privacy controls that led to Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Damian Collins, the chair of the culture, media and sport select committee, invoked a rare parliamentary mechanism to compel the founder of a US software company, Six4Three, to hand over the documents during a business trip to London.

In another exceptional move, parliament sent a serjeant at arms to his hotel with a final warning and a two-hour deadline to comply with its order.

When the software firm founder failed to do so, it’s understood he was escorted to parliament. He was told he risked fines and even imprisonment if he didn’t hand over the documents.

Facebook has lost more than $100bn in value since March when the Observer exposed how Cambridge Analytica had harvested data. (Guardian LINK).

It is nice to see Capitalist Piracy challenged by the Mother of Parliaments

Now to hit Facebook, Amazon, et al, forcing them to pay tax in the markets from which they make earn their money (whilst in the case of Amazon eliminating local competition).

 

[Haze]

Read this post....

 

[Freddie1980]

Now to hit Facebook, Amazon, et al, forcing them to pay tax in the markets from which they make earn their money (whilst in the case of Amazon eliminating local competition).

There was a change to the likes of Amazon, Facebook et el are taxed in the recent budget. Let's see how it works out.

 

[dowie]

LOL, love this bit

In another exceptional move, parliament sent a serjeant at arms to his hotel with a final warning and a two-hour deadline to comply with its order. When the software firm founder failed to do so, it’s understood he was escorted to parliament. He was told he risked fines and even imprisonment if he didn’t hand over the documents.

I hope he was sent in full uniform complete with sword:

 

[Freddie1980]

LOL, love this bit



I hope he was sent in full uniform complete with sword:

That did make me laugh but it reminded me of a scene from Fraiser where Fraiser goes to talk to Niles at their wine club and Niles asks for the Sarjent of arms to escort Fraiser from the building then up pops this little old man telling Fraiser to leave. Shame there appears to be no clip of it on YouTube otherwise I would have posted it.

 

[V F]

That did make me laugh but it reminded me of a scene from Fraiser where Fraiser goes to talk to Niles at their wine club and Niles asks for the Sarjent of arms to escort Fraiser from the building then up pops this little old man telling Fraiser to leave. Shame there appears to be no clip of it on YouTube otherwise I would have posted it.

Sadly there are a lot of great Frasier/Martin quotes that isn't on Youtube. :/

 

[NoobCannon]

Lol facebook

 

[Kemik]

Now to hit Facebook, Amazon, et al, forcing them to pay tax in the markets from which they make earn their money (whilst in the case of Amazon eliminating local competition).

How do you do that then? I'd love to hear a suggestion.

 

[stockhausen]

How do you do that then? I'd love to hear a suggestion.

So would I. While the Tory Government ponders the problem, perhaps they should just levy a sensible tax on the value of Amazon's shipments to UK customers? As to Facebook, *******, etc., as far as I am concerned, they could just block access to them all in the UK - permanently; frankly, who gives a toss?

It is my understanding that last year, Amazon paid just £15m in tax on European revenues of £19.5bn - I take it that that seems entirely reasonable to you?

The current tax system is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century.

 

[The_Abyss]

The current tax system is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century.

But you'd like to blame Amazon, Facebook and '*******' for the UK's sub-standard tax legislation.

 

[Pudney]

It is my understanding that last year, Amazon paid just £15m in tax on European revenues of £19.5bn - I take it that that seems entirely reasonable to you?

Is there a reason you quoted UK tax and European revenue?

 

[Angilion]

LOL, love this bit



I hope he was sent in full uniform complete with sword:

The mace would be far more imposing than a sword to someone who knows what it is. The mace is the symbol of the ruling power, the full imperium of the UK. A sword is just a sword.

 

[Kemik]

It is my understanding that last year, Amazon paid just £15m in tax on European revenues of £19.5bn - I take it that that seems entirely reasonable to you?

The current tax system is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century.

Suppose I can thank the BBC's awful reporting for the fact people compare taxes to revenues. Amazon makes very little profit.

 

[edscdk]

Suppose I can thank the BBC's awful reporting for the fact people compare taxes to revenues. Amazon makes very little profit.

I wondered that as well but still I dislike amazon its bad all round I might save a few % on an item but it puts smaller companies out of business and in the long run is bad for the country

 

[StriderX]

The mace would be far more imposing than a sword to someone who knows what it is. The mace is the symbol of the ruling power, the full imperium of the UK. A sword is just a sword.

Well it's apt then because it would never be used in such a way, as it's a show piece for an era that this country has long since been detached from physically, but seemingly not psychologically.

Considering the level of dysfunction the last 30 years have brought, it's actually sad.

 

[spoffle]

It is my understanding that last year, Amazon paid just £15m in tax on European revenues of £19.5bn - I take it that that seems entirely reasonable to you?

The current tax system is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century.

Corporation tax... I don't get why people are specifically obsessed with corporation tax and somehow think that because a company isn't paying "enough" corporation tax, that they aren't any tax at all.

What they're is legal. They're playing the game by its rules, so cry about the rules, not people making the best use of them.

 

[Freddie1980]

Suppose I can thank the BBC's awful reporting for the fact people compare taxes to revenues. Amazon makes very little profit.

Look up transfer pricing, there are plenty of ways to manipulate the local businesses profit to reduce it's tax liability.

Once/if we leave the EU for good the government could look at introducing a withholding tax on transfer pricing settlements as a way of levelling the playing field. The draw back is this will punish companies who use transfer pricing for what it's meant to be used for and don't abuse it.

 

[stockhausen]

But you'd like to blame Amazon, Facebook and '*******' for the UK's sub-standard tax legislation.

Uhhhh, no, I would like to blame a succession of right-wing Governments for helping Amazon for making obscene profits and putting local tax-paying retailers out of business. And before you cite Blair, New Labour was just a rebranded Tory cabal.

I don't personally feel that Facebook and ******* add value to life - forkem!

. . . Amazon makes very little profit.

When I see Bezos queuing up at a soup kitchen I may, just possibly, be convinced. In the meantime, I am sure that the saintly Philip Green will ride to Amazon's rescue.

 

[wildman]

It is my understanding that last year, Amazon paid just £15m in tax on European revenues of £19.5bn - I take it that that seems entirely reasonable to you?

entirely reasonable thanks. So long as amazon can provide me with what i want for decent prices i don't give a crap what they pay, the UK high street can go to hell with their gouging customer antics.

 

[Kemik]

Look up transfer pricing, there are plenty of ways to manipulate the local businesses profit to reduce it's tax liability.

Transfer Pricing/International Tax is my day job

When I see Bezos queuing up at a soup kitchen I may, just possibly, be convinced. In the meantime, I am sure that the saintly Philip Green will ride to Amazon's rescue.

In 2017, Amazon earned a profit of $3.8 billion before tax. AWS achieved a segment profit of $4.3 billion - more than the entire company's pre-tax profit. It's North America retail sales earned $2.8 billion (2.7% margin), while the international arm posted a loss exceeding $3 billion. How would you tax them that reflects they currently lose money on UK sales? Amazon is well known to only really go after cash. They are all about growth and cash at the expense of profits.

What actually happens is the UK staff perform a service for it's Luxembourg or US entities. That means the UK earns a cost plus return (the cost of it's staff plus a margin of about 5% to 10% of their costs). The UK Corporation tax is then on this margin. The new digital tax is aiming to tax revenue from UK operations - a weird sales tax that only targets certain companies.