[governance] Facebook spent $4 million to lobby U.S. lawmakers in 2012

Sat Jan 26 12:23:14 EST 2013

Nick,

"Folks, is tax policy really what people are interested in having an effect on in the IGC list? Is this a battle you really want to enter into, given the very real threats the open Internet faces today?"

And world peace.

Alejandro Pisanty

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
     Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
Facultad de Química UNAM
Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico

+52-1-5541444475 FROM ABROAD

+525541444475 DESDE MÉXICO SMS +525541444475
Blog: http://pisanty.blogspot.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pisanty
Unete al grupo UNAM en LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/22285/4A106C0C8614
Twitter: http://twitter.com/apisanty
---->> Unete a ISOC Mexico, http://www.isoc.org
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

________________________________
Desde: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] en nombre de Nick Ashton-Hart [nashton at ccianet.org]
Enviado el: sábado, 26 de enero de 2013 02:35
Hasta: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; Guru गुरु
Asunto: Re: [governance] Facebook spent $4 million to lobby U.S. lawmakers in 2012

Guru said:

The scandalously low effective tax rates of the IT transnationals can also be seen as some kind of implicit subsidy ... and measures/experiments like that of the French Govt are required to help correct this situation - by reducing the lobbying power of these corporates and also getting the funding required by governments to support basic societal infrastructure, including soft infrastructure like public education and public health..

My reply:

The rates being paid by IT companies are not different than other types of companies. For example, I believe GE paid effectively 14% tax globally last year. Corporate tax rates overall do not differentiate by sector - though, of course, some vertical markets do get exemptions and credits designed to encourage certain activities by them.

If you believe that companies should pay more, that's fine - but to suggest that IT companies are particularly bad in some way does a disservice, I think, to the overall objective which many seek: reforming the tax system so that companies, in general, pay a larger share of tax.

This is, by the way, extremely complex and there are powerful incentives for countries to incentivise FDI by, among other measures, favourable tax regimes. It will be incredibly difficult to get enough countries that are desirable markets for industry to sign up to a broad range of measures to synchronise taxes to produce the desired end - the incentives to attract FDI are simply very powerful.

What the French are proposing (not for the first time) is not going to help anything; it is soapbox policy, designed for an internal audience of French people. Like the 75% tax on wealthy individuals they propose, it wouldn't raise enough money to solve France's real deficit issues; it would just make France even less competitive an economy than it already is.

Folks, is tax policy really what people are interested in having an effect on in the IGC list? Is this a battle you really want to enter into, given the very real threats the open Internet faces today?

--
Regards,

Nick Ashton-Hart

Need to meet with me? Schedule the time that suits us both here: http://meetme.so/nashton

Sent from my one of my handheld thingies, please excuse linguistic mangling.

On 26 Jan 2013, at 04:49, "Guru गुरु" <Guru at itforchange.net<mailto:Guru at itforchange.net>> wrote:

The scandalously low effective tax rates of the IT transnationals can also be seen as some kind of implicit subsidy ... and measures/experiments like that of the French Govt are required to help correct this situation - by reducing the lobbying power of these corporates and also getting the funding required by governments to support basic societal infrastructure, including soft infrastructure like public education and public health..
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20130126/7c60d5b9/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t