Thursday, December 13, 2012

Bonnie Kavoussi — Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Defends Tax Dodge: 'It's Called Capitalism'

Google's chairman says he is "proud" of the way his company avoids paying taxes.
"It's called capitalism," Eric Schmidt told Bloomberg in a Wednesday article. "We are proudly capitalistic. I'm not confused about this."
"We pay lots of taxes; we pay them in the legally prescribed ways," he said. "I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate."
Bloomberg reported on Monday that Google avoided paying $2 billion in global income taxes last year by housing profits in Bermuda, which has no corporate income tax. Google already had been paying a 2.4 percent overseas tax rate through tax avoidance strategies, according to a 2010 Bloomberg report. Its overall effective tax rate was 22.2 percent in 2009.
The Huffington Post
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Defends Tax Dodge: 'It's Called Capitalism'
Bonnie Kavoussi

I thought Eric Schmidt was a smart guy. That was a very stupid thing to say.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, there goes Schmidt's reputation as one of the "good guy" capitalists.

Bob Roddis said...

It's good to know there are still some heroes in big business who will stand up to the commie socialist thugs. Can't have people not paying their "fair share" of the war machine. Can't put a constraint on the headlong Keynesian leap into the total surveillance police state.

http://rlv.zcache.com/taxation_is_theft_sticker-p217664625037822479bah05_400.jpg

Tom Hickey said...

Can't have people not paying their "fair share" of the war machine.

You do understand that the "war machine" is a protection service for American, Western and capitalistic business paid for with public funds. That is, everything in excess of what is actually required to provide for the common defense, which is a great of it if not most of it.

Bob Roddis said...

You do understand that the "war machine" is a protection service for American, Western and capitalistic business paid for with public funds.

Even when you are right (about the surveillance state), you guys are compelled to undo your best case. You are also the most naive people on the planet. There's a reason the Founding Fathers attempted to constrain the government: It's because its usually run by thugs and sociopaths. Why you MMTers think it's a great idea to grant those thugs unconstrained access to unlimited spending (especially to solve problems that don't even exist) is truly bizarre.

Tom Hickey said...

Uh no. The US government is a republic, in which people get to elect representatives they themselves choose periodically. The remedy the Founding Fathers provided was the ballot box. If the people choose thugs to rule them, then they are themselves to blame and they deserve what they get.

Bob Roddis said...

the ballot box

As said, you are so hopelessly and terminally naive.

Tom Hickey said...

And you don't believe in democracy.

Daniel Jones said...

tom,

and you dont believe in freedom.

Tom Hickey said...

Daniel,I believe in freedom and responsibility. People that "believe in freedom" are morally cripples that don't realize that there is a constellation of "virtues" that need to be harmonized in balanced social life rather than only one, or one — individual liberty — that overrides all the rest. This is what socialization is all about. Do you have children? Do you allow them to "go" wherever they freely choose to? I'll bet not.