Jeff Bezos (Amazon)

[Seeker]

His wealth in terms of grains of rice:


https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2020/03/02...peoples-minds/

[garynortheast]

That is obscene.

[SV650rules]

It is often hard to visualise a billion compared to a million, and it worries me when people in favour of big white elephants like HS2 talk about billions as if it is nothing, so it has gone from initial £30B to over £100B ( just for phase 1) and makes no economic sense, but they still want it.

Good luck to Jeff Bezos, many of the ideas that made people wealthy started in someones garage ( Amazon did ) and they took enormous financial risks ( like risking all their savings and house and then borrowed money ) and worked 20 hours a day - and for every one that worked out millions did not. Is it only in the UK that we hate rich successful people who worked hard to get it ? Maybe I don't like spoiled people who inherited a successful business from parent (s) and then sold up and squandered to proceeds, but self made people -great, and to be fair Amazon offer a great service to consumers, maybe not so great for their sellers but they are probably nowhere near the worst.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

Is it only in the UK that we hate rich successful people who worked hard to get it ?

I have no problem with people getting rich providing they are not doing so at the expense of their workers or by avoiding/evading tax.

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/7...in-three-years

The fact that Amazon need to advertise that their working conditions are wonderful on tv indicates that there is a problem.

Similar complaints are voiced over Amazon's working conditions in Germany and in the US. They moved their UK tax base to Luxembourg to avoid UK tax (remember Juncker from the EU/Brexit negotiations - when he was Lux's Finance minister he facilitated Amazon style tax avoidance but when in EU railed against tax avoidance). I avoid using Amazon.

[SV650rules]

Well the NHS, Police force, Army, navy, Air force and education system ( for teachers ) all advertise on TV and radio to recruit. Amazon employ about 30,000 people in UK - one of the biggest employers. I guess majority of companies in China, India etc have worse employment conditions than Amazon, but lots of people still buy stuff made there. Nobody forces anyone to work for a company, and if Amazon cannot recruit enough people I guess market forces will mean they have to improve things.

[DJ123]

My question is always, if you could pay less tax than you do. Would you? The answer is probably yes because we all want to see more of the money we earn.
The tax loopholes exist, and whether we like it or not they are legal. Someone along a supply chain from the procurement of the raw material to the consumer, is probably paying less tax than they 'should'. It's the world we live in which is run by economics.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by DJ123

My question is always, if you could pay less tax than you do. Would you?

If services (and roads) were improved because of me paying more tax; I would pay more. Would I want to manipulate the system, legal or not, to pay less; no.

Originally Posted by DJ123

The tax loopholes exist, and whether we like it or not they are legal.

Legal: yes. Ethical: no.

The amount of tax I could avoid or all of us could avoid is trivial and would make little difference. The tax that Amazon and the rest avoid would make a difference.


This thread, though, was simply to show the scale of 1 man's assets. Visualising a billion is difficult, the link shows the staggering size.

[Craig380]

Two years ago, my company (10 people, turning over about £750K, profitable) paid more corporation tax in the UK than Facebook UK did.

That's because it doesn't make financial sense for us to set up a brass-plate 'parent company' in Luxembourg that we can 'license' our brand from and move profits to. It costs around £200K to set one up, and around £120K per year to maintain it and keep the paperwork legit.

So the point is that small and medium-sized companies cannot access the loopholes that FB, Amazon, Google etc exploit to avoid corporation tax on their vast profits.

Of course, large firms like the ones mentioned always wave the "look how many people we employ and all the PAYE and NI they generate" argument. While that's true, it's a straw man argument. The fact remains that the companies are deliberately sheltering their profits from taxation in any jurisdiction.

Bezos' charitable donations are a drop in the ocean compared to what Amazon should be paying, and should have paid over the decades, in tax. He's making those donations to improve his image after being caught with his todger out, and to salve his guilty conscience.

[L3nny]

Originally Posted by DJ123

My question is always, if you could pay less tax than you do. Would you? The answer is probably yes because we all want to see more of the money we earn.
The tax loopholes exist, and whether we like it or not they are legal. Someone along a supply chain from the procurement of the raw material to the consumer, is probably paying less tax than they 'should'. It's the world we live in which is run by economics.

And if you can bribe politicians to allow more loopholes that benefit you who already has more money than you could ever spend at the expense of millions who are struggling every day to make ends meet then great

[DJ123]

Originally Posted by Seeker

If services (and roads) were improved because of me paying more tax; I would pay more. Would I want to manipulate the system, legal or not, to pay less; no.


Legal: yes. Ethical: no.

The amount of tax I could avoid or all of us could avoid is trivial and would make little difference. The tax that Amazon and the rest avoid would make a difference.


This thread, though, was simply to show the scale of 1 man's assets. Visualising a billion is difficult, the link shows the staggering size.

unfortunately our tax system (& others) aren't based on ethics. I by no means agree with any large corporation not as much paying tax as they should. But I was pointing out that there are multiple avenues they can use to avoid it.

There was a case for an investment arm of HSBC that just settled a 300M Euro fine for a tax fraud case in Belgium - if the Banks are avoiding it, who else is?!

Originally Posted by L3nny

And if you can bribe politicians to allow more loopholes that benefit you who already has more money than you could ever spend at the expense of millions who are struggling every day to make ends meet then great

Unfortunately so, or even whole countries.