Is the US Goverment funding Activison-Blizzard?

[Princess Luna]

Activision-Blizzard paid $0 in taxes in 2018 while taking $228 million from tax payers

 

A new report from ITEP, which looks into income taxes for some of the largest companies in the world, has revealed that Activision Blizzard paid $0 in federal taxes in 2018.

 

The company had an effective tax rate of -51% in 2018, which lead to US Tax Payers having to pay $228 million to Activision Blizzard instead as a tax rebate.

 

Here’s the chart from ITEP, which shows that Activision Blizzard took in $447 million in US income, and had an effective rate of -51%.

 

Unsurprisingly the tech/gaming giant has found ways to benefit from loopholes on US federal law to not only avoid paying any federal tax in 2018 but actually get paid by the government. We have seen many cases where tech giants will find ways to get away with tax and tributes but this case surely wins the cake... It's notorious why so few new companies get into the industry whilst the giants become more and more of a monopoly.

 

Are you from USA? How do you feel knowing your hard earned money that you were forced to pay as tribute to the government being used to fund more loot boxes for children?

 

Source

[HanZie82]

Everybody with more money then average tries so hard to avoid taxes its disgusting.
I mean don't them cunts realize that their taxes pay the stuff they use, like police roads and all sorts of other stuff.
Not paying taxes is very fucking selfish. And should be criminalized.

[Levent]

List has lots of usual suspects.

https://itep.org/notadime/

[Letgomyleghoe]

5 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Everybody with more money then average tries so hard to avoid taxes its disgusting.
I mean don't them cunts realize that their taxes pay the stuff they use, like police roads and all sorts of other stuff.
Not paying taxes is very fucking selfish. And should be criminalized.

it is criminalized search up tax evasion, this is simply a loophole

[Mira Yurizaki]

Part of what Activision Blizzard's negative taxation came from something called the Research & Experimentation Tax Credit

 

Some history about it:

Quote

With widespread concern that U.S. economic performance had fallen well below its potential, Congress passed 'The Economic Recovery Tax Act' (ERTA) of 1981. The ERTA was intended to act as an economic stimulus that would encourage investment within the United States

 

This part at least sounds more like tax code that outlived its usefulness, but it's too good for corporations that they'll likely lobby against its repeal. Which leads me to believe a lot of tax credits started off like this. Though you kind of have to pick and choose your battles. If you start making it hard to do business in a country, said business may find somewhere else to set up shop and take all of the economic benefit that it provided.

[Flying Sausages]

Isn't it the same Amazon not paying any taxes at all while their employees have the pay huge taxes? 

[EarthWormJM2]

...just the amount of government debt, infrastructure, and funding that could be benefited by just a handful of these companies not being shitty slime balls and paying their taxes. Yet we citizens are the ones who have to keep making up for that deficit more and more.

 

I'm not saying tax the hell out of companies, but when you are paying nothing or even receiving money from the government that could be spent on, i dunno, say our reeling education system... that's not right. 

 

Pretty freakin' pathetic...

[WkdPaul]

* Thread moved to the General section as it's not considered Tech News *

[RonnieOP]

Activision as a company might have gotten enough credits that it didnt pay taxes but that doesnt mean the ceos and workers dont.

 

Same with amazon.

 

Amazon might not pay taxes as a business. But you can bet your ass that Bezos probably pays more in taxes then probably most of the users here combined.

 

Im not trying to kiss the rich peoples ass. But they pay the vast majority of taxes in the US. The bottom 50% of earners pay 3% while the top 50% pay 97%. 

 

Poor people are not funding anything with their taxes basically. They rely on them much more then the rich. My boss pays legit thousands in property taxes that funds public schooling whole hes also paying thousands of years to send his kids to private school. Not to mention his taxes that are paying for medicaid, food stamps, public housing, etc that he obv doesnt use.

 

Like i said. Im not kissing rich peoples ass but to act like they arent basically paying for everything already is asinine and factually not true.

[JZStudios]

1 hour ago, HanZie82 said:

Everybody with more money then average tries so hard to avoid taxes its disgusting.
I mean don't them cunts realize that their taxes pay the stuff they use, like police roads and all sorts of other stuff.
Not paying taxes is very fucking selfish. And should be criminalized.

Considering that fact that technically paying taxes is supposed to be voluntary, it is already criminalized. And having a buddy in the upper middle class, they take literally half his paycheck in taxes.

The tax system is stupid, and there was a thing going around about a no bullshit flat 17% tax rate that everyone could afford, and everyone hated it and it never happened.

58 minutes ago, EarthWormJM2 said:

...just the amount of government debt, infrastructure, and funding that could be benefited by just a handful of these companies not being shitty slime balls and paying their taxes. Yet we citizens are the ones who have to keep making up for that deficit more and more.

 

I'm not saying tax the hell out of companies, but when you are paying nothing or even receiving money from the government that could be spent on, i dunno, say our reeling education system... that's not right. 

 

Pretty freakin' pathetic...

Incorrect.

...just the amount of government debt, infrastructure, and funding that could be further mismanaged by handing them more money to drain down the toilet. Generally speaking, the government has enough money, but they go spending it all on stupid shit that never gets done. Or providing healthcare and shelter to non-citizens while your failing economic system and policies are forcing your actual tax paying citizens to infest the rest of the country, ironically bringing along the same stupid ideals to ruin that place too.

Not to mention they'd be paying millions in taxes, not billions, so it's not nearly as much as we'd all love to think.

 

Good example of government mismanagement? The F-22 Raptor that literally no one in the Air Force or armed forces likes, doesn't work on any of the levels it was designed to do, isn't as effective as the F-18, yet the government still spends 22 million dollars per plane.

Or the Bradley, same story.

Kind of just the entire military branch in general. Everyone knows the government will pay basically whatever price you tell them, so they overcharge the shit out of everything and everything costs 4x more than it should, while still generally speaking, being a complete piece of shit.

[williamcll]

I mean if the government is desperate they could ask the tax free states to start coughing up the unpaid monies.

[Teddy07]

1 hour ago, HanZie82 said:

Everybody with more money then average tries so hard to avoid taxes its disgusting.

False!

It is typical for our society to blame the rich guy when literally everbody, even the little guy tries to avoid taxes.

[Zando_]

Just now, Teddy07 said:

literally everbody, even the little guy tries to avoid taxes.

They do? I just pay 'em and then do my tax return thingies at the proper time and then they usually give me some back. 

[TempestCatto]

With all that money you'd think they'd be able to fund making a really good game and experience. /s

 

As a US citizen, I don't genuinely understand how this all works, and it feels very fishy and wrong imo. I think it's time to head on down to Virginia and kickstart CWII.

[Midnitewolf]

I am a peon in the great cog of life like most others but I don't think that people realize that the government does actually offer incentives to many large companies in order to encourage them to keep offices open in the USA.  We are competing in a very big world for these companies and the jobs they bring with them and if the grass is greener in China, Taiwan, India, etc, these companies will move.  My point is, at the end of the day, there might very well be cases where the government is using our tax dollar to provide incentives for businesses to stay in the good old USA and that is a better scenario than us not having jobs that we can pay taxes on.  Just something to consider when you start thinking about the bigger picture.

[RonnieOP]

5 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

They do? I just pay 'em and then do my tax return thingies at the proper time and then they usually give me some back. 

Most people try and find ways around avoiding any tax they can. Even when it something small like ordering online from say Amazon where you may not be charged sales tax. 

 

I mean technically when you buy a pc part off a guy on craigslist you are legally obligated to claim that on your taxes and pay the sales tax for it. But obv i dont think anyone does. I personally dont.

 

Every year i end up having to write the irs a check. I look for literally every loophole and credit i can find to take that down as much as possible. And im far from rich lol.

[Zando_]

Just now, RonnieOP said:

Most people try and find ways around avoiding any tax they can. Even when it something small like ordering online from say Amazon where you may not be charged sales tax. 

I order from Amazon lol, but not to intentionally avoid taxes (didn't even know that was a thing)

1 minute ago, RonnieOP said:

I mean technically when you buy a pc part off a guy on craigslist you are legally obligated to claim that on your taxes and pay the sales tax for it. But obv i dont think anyone does. I personally dont.

Facts, I've never met anyone who self-reports cash based transactions that aren't at a store or something, seems like it'd be a massive hassle (also doesn't seem to be enforced, because again that'd be a huge headache). 

2 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

Every year i end up having to write the irs a check. I look for literally every loophole and credit i can find to take that down as much as possible. And im far from rich lol.

Oof. My employer yoinks the taxes before I'm paid, I don't do much beyond that. But then I am yet a smol bab (20, by adult standards I am still a wee baby lmao). Haven't gotten into finances and stuff, I'm able to pay my bills and make terrible hardware choices so I've been good so far. 

[EarthWormJM2]

19 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

..just the amount of government debt, infrastructure, and funding that could be further mismanaged by handing them more money to drain down the toilet. Generally speaking, the government has enough money, but they go spending it all on stupid shit that never gets done. Or providing healthcare and shelter to non-citizens while your failing economic system and policies are forcing your actual tax paying citizens to infest the rest of the country, ironically bringing along the same stupid ideals to ruin that place too.

Not to mention they'd be paying millions in taxes, not billions, so it's not nearly as much as we'd all love to think.

You're not wrong... but based on what the government likes to say that we don't have enough money for education and other things, there's an easy answer for them instead of making us citizens pay for it. But we know (here in the real world) it's actually because they can't manage money, yes. I'm just pointing out how the government likes to say they don't have enough tax revenue for things to justify raising it for us when there are plenty of other avenues to look at first. Not saying tax the shit out of them, not even increase it, just remove these ridiculous tax breaks.

And if you add up all the companies not paying taxes, it easily gets into the billions. Plus the money the RECIEVED from the government instead... another couple billion. no it's not the honeypot to fix everything, but thats a lot of extra money to allocate.

[JZStudios]

1 minute ago, EarthWormJM2 said:

You're not wrong... but based on what the government likes to say that we don't have enough money for education and other things, there's an easy answer for them instead of making us citizens pay for it. But we know (here in the real world) it's actually because they can't manage money, yes. I'm just pointing out how the government likes to say they don't have enough tax revenue for things to justify raising it for us when there are plenty of other avenues to look at first. Not saying tax the shit out of them, not even increase it, just remove these ridiculous tax breaks.

And if you add up all the companies not paying taxes, it easily gets into the billions. Plus the money the RECIEVED from the government instead... another couple billion. no it's not the honeypot to fix everything, but thats a lot of extra money to allocate.

Give the government literally all the money in the world and they'll find a way to piss it all down the drain and complain they don't have enough.

[AngryBeaver]

So a lot of the companies getting giant tax cuts is to give them incentive to keep jobs here. So while they aren't get taxed as hard all the jobs they create do. So you get taxes from them and also create jobs which helps the country.

 

I am by no means in the 1%, but I will probably be having my taxes done by a big time professional this year. Paying more than a full average salary In taxes each year is less than ideal. Think I paid almost 60k in taxes last year.

 

So while I do make a decent income and also don't mind paying my taxes... I also feel that i am being raked over the coals since i don't take advantage of the big cuts like the 1% do. 60k in taxes is felt much more by me than the hundreds of thousands or even millions the 1% might pay in.

 

I mean I can only image how much that 18-20k in taxes hurts a family with a total income of 50-60k.

 

I think the biggest problem I have is the way our government blows the money and doesn't even keep a balanced budget. 

[RonnieOP]

19 minutes ago, EarthWormJM2 said:

You're not wrong... but based on what the government likes to say that we don't have enough money for education and other things, there's an easy answer for them instead of making us citizens pay for it. But we know (here in the real world) it's actually because they can't manage money, yes. I'm just pointing out how the government likes to say they don't have enough tax revenue for things to justify raising it for us when there are plenty of other avenues to look at first. Not saying tax the shit out of them, not even increase it, just remove these ridiculous tax breaks.

And if you add up all the companies not paying taxes, it easily gets into the billions. Plus the money the RECIEVED from the government instead... another couple billion. no it's not the honeypot to fix everything, but thats a lot of extra money to allocate.

Personally i think it should be a flat rate for everyone.

 

No more tax refunds for anyone rich or poor.

[wasab]

Stupid corporate charity. When will people learn that trickle down economic simply doesn't work?

 

[wasab]

2 hours ago, HanZie82 said:

Everybody with more money then average tries so hard to avoid taxes its disgusting.
I mean don't them cunts realize that their taxes pay the stuff they use, like police roads and all sorts of other stuff.
Not paying taxes is very fucking selfish. And should be criminalized.

To be fair, poor people do it too except their solution isn't as elegant as starting shell companies in cayman islands. 

[AngryBeaver]

44 minutes ago, wasab said:

To be fair, poor people do it too except their solution isn't as elegant as starting shell companies in cayman islands. 

Our own IRS has said countless times on record that they do not go after people who make over 100k. Since it is too resource intensive in both time and money. So instead they target those that literally can not afford to fight it.

 

For example about 12 years ago I claimed my wifes kid from a first marriage. It was her year to claim and since she didn't have an income that year I claimed him since I cover like 95% of his costs. His dad claimed him too for whatever reason that year and hell I think he made like 15k total for the year.

 

Anyways this was before I was as financially sound as I am now and they came after me saying I fraudulently claimed him and not only demanded for the 4 I go for him back, asked for another 8k in penalties and then interest. I think in total it was like 16k. 

 

I provided a court document showing it was her year to claim. I also showed I provided pretty much all of his support (his dad didn't even pay his child support)! I also had a hand written note from her giving me the authority to claim him as well as the relevant tax laws that said I could.

 

Their response was basically tough. I thin to be exact they said I would need to take him to court to recover the fees. It also came down to the fact he got back way less than I did.

 

The kicker to all of this. I was the sole income supporting a family of 3 on like 50k income and they wanted me to pay back 16k on a year I made like 32k after taxes.

 

I am still bitter over that and it was one of the major enlightening moments in my life. 

 

Now fast forward 10 years (2 years ago) and it happened again. This time I got back way less since you get back less the more you make (for these credits) again they sent me an official letter. I called up a tax lawyer and handed them my information including a copy of the divorce order showing it again was her year. I think 90 days went by and it was squashed.

 

Now technically I was in the right both times. I provided the same information both times, but when I had the means to fight it... they magically backed off.

 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 hours ago, RonnieOP said:

No more tax refunds for anyone rich or poor.

If you're getting a decent refund, you're doing it wrong anyway.