But hey, at least we got thousands of clicks from outraged people about tech companies not paying taxes? KPIs met! Win!
Okay can I as individual get tax credits by going into debt? If I can't "tax credits" then Zoom shouldn't get them. It's just common sense.
Seriously the current tax structure in the United States seems to be anti-human being. Humans have to pay up front in cash 100% each year, corporations can just claim they are writing off debt, apparently even in years they have no debt. Where does it stop? Why would someone defend this who pays taxes themselves?
Is it safe to assume you have no investments or save for retirement?
(In the UK these are ISA and personal pensions, and on both I don't pay income tax. This vaguely corresponds to the 401k system)
If so, you should incorporate +and probably already do if you happen to employ thousands of people) since laws around incorporating are there to encourage people to take the risk of providing these values.
Societies that burden business with taxes generally do not understand that businesses are the lifeblood of economy and draining the lifeblood makes the economy sick.
When viewed this way, the vitriol arising from a large company not paying taxes makes sense. The entire organism requires coordination in order to survive, and the government and companies need to work together and support each other in order to thrive.
This isn't even going into the outrage arising from the fact that large companies are treated very differently from small businesses and individuals.
Federal income tax is just one of the many taxes that companies are subjected to, and one that innovative companies normally don't pay anyway because it's not good business to hoard profits, it's much better to invest for future growth, leading to more of all the other kinds of taxes being generated now and into the future.
These rage-bait articles that always focus on corporate income tax only work because many people aren't aware of this.
Subtracting everything, X Company made Zero Net Profit. How much should X Company paid on Tax?
How much did this Lifeblood ( X Company ) contributed to the entire organism ( Society )? ( Hint: it is not Zero )
Sounds like you're questioning the validity of the concept of a tax credit, a fundamental and necessary component of income taxation. Income taxation is economically inefficient, but if it's implemented, deductions / credits are vital.
Companies are groups of human beings, earning income collectively. Corporate income taxes wouldn't be needed if the tax system was effective at tracking all financial flows. If the system worked properly, we'd just tax the money when it was paid to individuals as salary or dividends, which has to happen for it to be used by people; it's no good to anyone just sitting in a company bank account doing nothing.
The focus on company income tax is just a media trick to get people enraged, but it really is a non issue. Big companies generate huge amounts of taxes by merely exisiting, because they move huge amounts of money around that ends up in the hands of other companies and individuals, and plenty of tax gets paid when that happens.