{"id":6140,"date":"2010-02-18T10:29:51","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T08:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2010\/02\/18\/microsoft-and-dell-dont-get-it\/"},"modified":"2010-02-18T10:29:51","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T08:29:51","slug":"microsoft-and-dell-dont-get-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2010\/02\/18\/microsoft-and-dell-dont-get-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft and Dell don&rsquo;t get it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&rsquo;ve <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2010\/02\/18\/india-gets-it\/\" target=\"_blank\">just noted<\/a> the finance minister of India saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The structure and the location of the group entities of the multinational enterprises exploit the favourable tax regime offered by the low tax jurisdictions and tax havens.&#160; This has lead to accumulation of wealth and shifting of intellectual capital to these jurisdictions.&#160; The role of tax havens and low tax jurisdictions has become an area of great concern for a country like India which is putting its all acts together to mobilize resources to attack on poverty and illiteracy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Then I read in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/news\/2010-02-17\/microsoft-dell-prepare-to-fight-tax-increase-in-obama-s-budget.html\" target=\"_blank\">Business Week<\/a> that:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Software and computer companies such as Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. are gearing up to fight an Obama administration plan to curb offshore tax avoidance.<\/p>\n<p>The $15.5 billion proposal in President Barack Obama&rsquo;s 2011 budget targets what the Internal Revenue Service calls the growing problem of so-called transfer pricing. The technique allows companies to reduce their tax bills by transferring intangible property such as patents, trademarks and licenses to offshore subsidiaries.<\/p>\n<p>The Business Software Alliance, a Washington-based trade group that represents technology companies, said it would &ldquo;educate policy makers&rdquo; on how the proposal would hurt U.S. companies, jobs and the economy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The finance minister of India speaks with some authority on the issue. Microsoft and its chairman seek to direct world development through charitable structures whilst diverting attention&#160; from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.finfacts.ie\/irelandbusinessnews\/publish\/article_10005150.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">secretive tax policies<\/a> that deny tax revenues to places like India by selling them product from places like Ireland so limited local taxable revenues arise. <\/p>\n<p>Is this what Microsoft wants to \u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201e\u00c3\u00b2educate&rsquo; Washington about?&#160; Is this to be a lesson in how to move wealth from the poorest to the richest in the world, because that&rsquo;s what these structures are used to do. <\/p>\n<p>And how does that help your charitable objectives Bill? Let&rsquo;s debate it, anytime, anywhere. Your call. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&rsquo;ve just noted the finance minister of India saying: The structure and the location of the group entities of the multinational enterprises exploit the favourable<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2010\/02\/18\/microsoft-and-dell-dont-get-it\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development","category-tax-avoidance","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}