On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 11:27 PM, Brent Wallis <brent.wallis(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote: Well, I thought not paying more tax than you should is sign of how things should be. In fact, I vaguely remember somewhere reading that directors of a public company have a responsibility to not waste money unnecessarily, something about corporate responsibility in the Corporations Act (2001) or something like that... -- Aryan

Brent Wallis wrote: Perhaps the problem is not so much the reluctance of politicians to legislate; as the ideology of rational free-market capitalism: "The 'invisible-hand' unhampered by regulation, will produce the socially optimum outcome". Personally I consider this a pathetic, irresponsible delusion ! An unregulated free-market, like an untended garden will produce only weeds; regards Rohan McLeod

On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 10:02:58AM +1100, Aryan Ameri wrote: and paying less tax than you should is theft. $74,000 tax from Australian revenues of approx $1 billion is nowhere near what they should be paying. that's a tax rate of < 0.000074% The company tax rate in australia is 30% - $74K is what they should have paid if their net income was $246K. so they've fiddled the books (i.e. offshored the income to bermuda via ireland and nederlands) to claim that on gross income of around $1B they only had a net income of $246K. google has subsequently claimed that they actually pay $780K in tax. if that's true, it still only shifts the decimal point one place for an effective tax rate of 0.00078% on revenues of approx $1B. or about the right amount for a pretend net income of $2.6M. even assuming ridiculously generous expenses (rent, salaries, bills etc) of 50% of gross income, they *should* be paying around $150 Million in tax. The correct figure is, of course, somewhere between $150M and $300M. google is, of course, not the only company to evade tax. they all do it. it doesn't make it right. it makes them all thieves. paying their fair share of the infrastructure that their business depends on to make money is not wasting money. craig -- craig sanders &lt;cas(a)taz.net.au&gt; BOFH excuse #408: Computers under water due to SYN flooding.

On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 at 10:02:08AM +1100, Brent Wallis wrote: the last paragraph of that article is nonsensical. "The director of the Australian National University Centre for Law and Economics, George Barker, said the profits of companies such as Google were not, prima facie, a bad thing. ''One thing to consider is, corporations like Google have a lot of intellectual property and therefore what may look like huge profits are actually a return to moral and intellectual property,'' he said." nobody has claimed that their profits are a bad thing - only that they should pay the correct amount of tax on those profits. and WTF is that bullshit about "a return to moral and intellectual property"? a return on investment is a return on investment - i.e. a profit, and thus taxable no matter whether you want to dress it up in bullshit phrases like "moral and intellectual property" or not. sounds like a deliberate distraction or, in other words, bamboozle the suckers with bullshit. sure it is.....if google made about 1/3rd of the net income that your company did. craig -- craig sanders &lt;cas(a)taz.net.au&gt;

On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Brian May &lt;brian(a)microcomaustralia.com.au&gt;wrote;wrote: More baity comment... Let me sharpen the perspective a little: Google last year paid about the same or less tax than a married couple who both work full time gaining the average wage! Please re-read my email. I have simply re-stated Googles own dogma in the context of their tax payment last year. I did not make the "evil" accusation you have asserted here. BW

Trent W. Buck &lt;trentbuck(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: In addition, the slogan is sufficiently ambiguous that many corporate practices can be considered to conform to it (or to depart from it), depending on your values and priorities.

On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 at 1:45 PM, Trent W. Buck &lt;trentbuck(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: Perhaps you have not been around this Internet thingy for a long time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil AFAIK Google have always made their money selling eyeballs to O' contraire wantok. I am simply throwing back a mantra that was used to elevate them. That early meme is a classic "spin" that was successful because it relied on the collective "short" memory. Get focussed..., your smarter than that....do you think Google paying $70,000 in tax in this country is fair??? BW _______________________________________________