Summary: Microsoft's more or less transparent games of tax dodging carry on while Bill Gates is trying to squeeze more money out of governments (despite paying almost nothing in tax)

Microsoft, its puppet Yahoo, and the Microsoft-occupied VMware [1, 2, 3, 4] are lobbying as a group to receive even more tax breaks than they already receive.

Microsoft uses Reno to achieve something similar [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] and "Washington State Revisits Data Center Tax Break," according to this new report which also relates to another from the Seattle Times that says: "A business and city coalition called Washington Needs Jobs supports the legislation. Members include the city of Quincy; technology companies including Microsoft, Yahoo and VMWare; and developer Sabey."

MicrosoftTaxDodge.com has meanwhile more to say:

The post seems to focus on companies out of state doing business in Washington. It does not clearly address Microsoft which both has an extensive physical footprint in Washington and uses Nevada to record revenue in an attempt to evade Washington's B&O Royalty Tax.

While we are in favor of clearer definition of Nexus in relationship to these taxes, it's important to focus on the potential illegality of Microsoft's existing accounting methods to dodge the royalty tax. We continue to believe Microsoft's historical behavior and current actions represent tax evasion and can and should be cracked down upon by the Department of Revenue.

It is worth emphasising that the Gates Foundation is being used to escape taxation as well. It's scandalous and we provided a lot of evidence before. The GatesKeepers Web site is very cynical about the Gates Foundation which it characterises as "philanthrocapitalism" (making money while pretending to be a charity).

Matthew displays just a glimpse of his opinion of Bill's hubris in this article. And he can see that whatever Bill's original jottings might have been, the Gates Foundation's well-paid machine has twisted, spun, massaged, and otherwise fixed Bill's text so that it resembles gospel rather than one man's thoughts. Beatification indeed.

The above post references an article from The Economist that says:

In June he [Bill Gates] met Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister of Italy, to protest against his halving of the country’s aid budget, “making them uniquely stingy among European donors,” as he put it in his epistle. So far, this pressure has not changed Mr Berlusconi’s mind. Perhaps, if he wants his letters, blog posts and tweets to have more influence, Mr Gates should take the gloves off and start talking as tough as his old pal Mr Buffett.

This is outrageous. Don't people understand that Bill Gates is trying to make governments send taxpayers' money towards the very same companies he is investing billions of dollars in? He even invests in governments in exchange for influence. How much more obvious need it be? This must be philanthrocapitalism at its finest. They loot populations which they also want to adore them. ⬆

"My background is finance and accounting. As a socially conscious venture capitalist and philanthropist, I have a very good understanding of wealth management and philanthropy. I started my career in 1967 with the IRS as a specialist in taxation covering many areas of the tax law including the so-called legal loopholes to charitable giving. […] However, the Gates Buffet foundation grant is nothing more than a shell game in which control of assets for both Gates and Buffet remain the same. […] The only difference is that the accumulation of wealth by these two will be much more massive because they will no longer have to pay any taxes."

The Gates and Buffet Foundation Shell Game