Google Now Pays More Money in EU Fines Than it Pays in Taxes (computing.co.uk) 109
An anonymous reader writes: Google owner Alphabet has reported annual and quarterly revenues up again, largely on the back of increasing market share in online advertising. The company reported fourth quarter revenues up 22 per cent to $39.28 billion, while annual revenues were up 23 per cent to $136.8 billion. And the company also took the time to separate out "European Commission fines" in its consolidated statements of income in the company's accounts. These increased from $2.7 billion in 2017 to $5.1 billion in 2018, with a further 50 million euro already set to be added to the bill for its first quarter and 2019 accounts, thanks to French data protection authority CNIL.That fine compares to a provision for income taxes of just $4.2 billion for 2018, or 12 per cent of its pre-tax income.
Net income for the full year increased by a 143 per cent from $12.67 billion to $30.74 billion thanks largely to a radically lower provision for income taxes - down from $14.5 billion to just $4.2 billion. The company attributed this tax boost down to the US Tax Act of 2017, which had depressed net income in 2017. This had "resulted in additional tax expense of $9.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017, primarily due to the one-time transition tax on accumulated foreign subsidiary earnings and deferred tax effects", the company claimed in its earnings release.
Net income for the full year increased by a 143 per cent from $12.67 billion to $30.74 billion thanks largely to a radically lower provision for income taxes - down from $14.5 billion to just $4.2 billion. The company attributed this tax boost down to the US Tax Act of 2017, which had depressed net income in 2017. This had "resulted in additional tax expense of $9.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017, primarily due to the one-time transition tax on accumulated foreign subsidiary earnings and deferred tax effects", the company claimed in its earnings release.
article is not very complete (Score:3)
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GDPR violations mostly. Google didn't specify in their listing either, they just said "EU com fines" and put up a total. They don't want people to remember they were for violations of EU privacy laws right at frontal lobe level.
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Google paid fines for not bring in compliance with the law in a region from which they operate.
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Bullshit. The fines are primarily anti-trust. Like say this one:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/18/17580694/google-android-eu-fine-antitrust
Re:article is not very complete (Score:4, Informative)
GDPR violations mostly.
I think very little was GDPR-related. As I recall, 2017's big fine ($2.5B) was for putting Google Shopping ads in Google Search results, and 2018's ($5B) was for bundling GApps with Android.
Re: article is not very complete (Score:1)
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GDPR violations mostly.
Nope. Google has had one GDPR fine and that isn't paid yet. They have been antitrust fines.
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It was obvious that Europe can not use their tax laws to go after Google (and other American tech companies), so, they were going to use their laws with MASSIVE fines. I had to laugh when somebody gripped about America fining VW 2.8B for their lying and polluting, while Europe will make up fake fines which are much higher against these companies and use it on their coffers.
Yeah, because American mega-corps are such a nice honest salt-of-the-earth bunch people who never cheat on their taxes. I'm pretty sure the people running US corporations are the exact same species of greedy sociopathic assholes as their European colleagues. I for one despise them all equally.
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they are NOT being fined for taxes. They are being fined for all sorts of BS that their own companies do, but it is not illegal....
Such as? ... please enlighten us by elaborating and providing some citations to weasel stuff that European Corpocrats do but American ones would never dream of doing because they are such honest salt-of-the-earth people.
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..They are being fined for all sorts of BS that their own companies do, but it is not illegal....
What are you talking about? I said that BOTH Americans and European companies are doing this stuff, it is just that the European govs are going after the American companies.
You suggested that the EU is unfairly fining US companies and not fining European ones for getting up to the exact same shenannigans the US companies are pulling, or, in other words the usual: Bwwwaaaaaaaahhhhhh. UNFAIR!!! ... whining that seems to be so in vogue with US conservatives these days.
Here are some companies that have been fined by the EU for all kinds of dirty tricks over the last few decades:
Daimler (German)
Scania (Swedish)
DAF (Dutch)
Saint Gobain (French)
Philips (Dutch)
LG Electronics
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Lets look at them.
1) Microsoft was fined more than Servier, who likely cost ppl's lives. Please.
2) Good with going after Qualcomm/Apple. I do think that 1.2B was excessive considering that Servier was
3) Intel being charged 1.45 B for lowering their price to get others to use Intel over AMD? Please. That is pure competition at work. Thankfully, EU Justice i
Re: Yup. (Score:1)
Re:Yup. (Score:4, Informative)
they are NOT being fined for taxes. They are being fined for all sorts of BS that their own companies do, but it is not illegal.
Yeah actually in the EU it is illegal which is why they got fined.
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Yeah actually in the EU it is illegal which is why they got fined.
Well it's illegal in the USA as well. However the prosecutors don't go after companies for antitrust laws without actual proven dollar value impact on specified consumers, a bar which is incredibly high to meet.
Alphabet Pays Taxes? (Score:2)
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The lawyers promised everything was legal, even though they weren't doing any of it the way that the governments involved had written the regulations, and then later the governments had their own lawyers look at it, and those lawyers pointed out it was never legal, and they'd know if it was legal because google would be following the regulations as written.
Loopholes are something that doesn't exist, that your lawyer promises will continue to not exist. The government might look the other way, but they also
EU fines ARE taxes. (Score:1, Troll)
They're "You're making too much, we're going to invent a reason you're bad, and retroactively fine you to fund our pork projects!" taxes.
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I think it's not provable unless you delve, and you're not doing that. However it's also irrelevant because they have the right to have laws! Google plays in their country's sandbox, not the other way around. Google != Sovereign.
If they were really not wanting to pay the fines they'd ADDRESS THE VIOLATIONS OF LAW, which wouldn't be impossible and everyone else has to do it also, OR STOP OPERATING IN EUROPE. Them's the breaks kid.
They choose to pay. They make massive profits anyway. Now if they only f
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Tell that to the guys in the EU trying to regulate the length of candle wicks.
Hey! Look at me! I'm an edgeboi! (Score:2)
Sorry. Did you have anything cogent to say?
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Of course, it's a lot easier to take if from someone else than to work for it
This is BS, but, we really need to fix taxes (Score:1)
Re:This is BS, but, we really need to fix taxes (Score:4, Insightful)
It is easy. All taxes should be paid at point of revenue and all cost deductions should be proven and the associated profits with those deductions even offshore ones, should be taxed. So no matter where the cost goes, the profits associated with it are taxed as if they occured locally at the point of revenue, no profit shifting should be allowed. Not able to prove the cost and profit in a different country, pay tax on total revenue and tough luck on the loss.
All taxes should be paid at point of revenue, the location where the customer spent their money.
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This is a joke, right?
"All taxes should be paid at point of revenue"
Okay - so I buy a chocolate - and pay tax where I buy it. Yep checks out.
Okay - so I buy a song - and pay tax at my house. Yep checks out.
Okay - so I travel to the EU and buy a song and pay tax in the EU. Pay tax in the EU from my US phone transaction from a US company... Uh...
Okay - so I am referred to a Japanese site from a US company from my French search. The Japanese site paid a UK company for the referral. The French search was
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I continue to suggest that we should have the Delivery service pick up a sales tax on shipped goods.
Of course, you then run into services. I can see companies simply shifting their services to other nations to avoid having to pay taxes, but it strikes me as bizarre that the west is NOT working together to prevent all of this.
I get why EU is doing the massive penalties on American companies. Basically, it is their current approach to get the taxes they believe owed. BUT, until we stop
Tax Breaks to Europe (Score:4, Informative)
What part of Reaganomics "trickledown" lead to raising taxes on the middle class 11 times in Reagan's 8 years are lost on people. Stop buying the "trickledown" lies.
The fines aren't very much (Score:2)
You're dead right about trickle down economics. Here in the states we changed the name to "Job Creators" and that stuck. Never underestimate the power of think tanks & focus groups.
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"Fund" a tax break? How does one "fund" a tax break? The government's failure to collect a percentage of money (via legal coercion) earned by an entity creating something of value is not "funding." I'm not saying that taxation is wrong per se, but to have an honest discussion about taxes and corporatism, we need to acknowledge that the government cannot "fund" a tax break. In the meantime, the EU with its non-representative, unelected, bureaucratic governance is not something to hold up as an example, espec
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We have laws because corporations place profit over life and safety. We as a society have agreed that educating the masses is a better option than dealing with uneducated hoodlum h
i think the USA (Score:1)
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It would also seriously impact the business of those mega corps. Again, not sure what your goal is, but its probably not beneficial to the american economy as
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You are so dumb you should be in government with Trump.
Here is what will happen.
The rest of the world will realise relying on the USA is a BAD thing, so they will build competing services. They will also try to limit their financial exposure to the whims of the USA and will choose to build stronger relationships with a wider base.
Then there is the 2.5 Trillion in exports that is put at risk, how many jobs would be gone if that gets even a 5% drop ?
Over 80% of the worlds economy does not involve the USA.
Per
Still making a lot of profit (Score:1)
Otherwise they would have changed to conform with the law.
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Does the EU collectt taxes? (Score:1)
Well that it news to me I always belivedthat it is themember states that do the taxsation, foes the EU realy tax any entety directly? Inthis context thas is impotant because if the EU dos not tax anyone, butissues fines it wouldbe rather easyto pat themmoreinfinesthan i taxes.
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Imagine if all of Europe suddenly was cut off from Google Services, Gmail, Maps, and the Play Store. I'm tired of foreign countries attempting to hurt American companies.
Are you aware that there is actually a movement in the US that people sign up to to remove Google from their online lives? If Europe was cut off from Google Services they'd just use one of the plethora of alternatives. Remember the only reason you have the WWW and that Google exists at all is thanks to the British creator of HTML and the European foundation CERN.
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Remember the only reason you have the WWW and that Google exists at all is thanks to the British creator of HTML and the European foundation CERN.
Do you really think nobody else would've figured out how to transmit formatted text over the internet?
That's like saying aliens wouldn't have rockets because Wernher von Braun lived on Earth.
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If Google pulled out of the EU then the shareholders would revolt and the greatest corporate shitstorm ever known would ensue. The EU market is vast and highly profitable. Quitting is just leaving huge sums of money on the table.