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Comment by gizdan | Hacker News Reader

Yes. Yes, they absolutely are, and they should be prosecuted for their tax avoidance. Same with Amazon and all other companies. I, as lone individual tax payer, paid more in taxes in the UK than Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple did, probably combined. That is not okay.

Edit: evasion > avoidance.

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So what do you suggest? We move to a feeling-based tax rate? Because I feel Apple should pay $26.55bn in taxes and they have a LOT of money.

There is a big difference between illegal tax evasion and leveraging existing tax code to reduce your taxes as much as possible.

I edited my comment. I meant tax avoidance.

I totally understand that there is legal means of essentially not paying taxes. That still does not make it okay. As I mentioned, I, as a lone tax payer, who made less then £100k, paid more in taxes in FAANG combined in the UK. That FAANG, who made billions. I probably paid more in the UK than FAANG paid in federal taxes (in the US) combined. The fact that Bezos was able to claim tax refunds despite him literally being the richest person in the world and to hear/read people defending him because "he legally did so" is absolutely mind boggling.

Your outrage might be aimed at the wrong people. Consider the law. They’re following it, and you’re saying “we should punish them for following the law”. That’s never going to happen. Ask yourself why the law allows stuff like that to happen in the first place. It should not. It clearly has been cracked, and needs an update.

>As I mentioned, I, as a lone tax payer, who made less then £100k, paid more in taxes in FAANG combined in the UK.

Only true if you think companies shoulder none of the burden of VAT, income tax etc.

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