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Microsoft Moves to Reno to Avoid Regular Tax and to India to Avoid Regular Salaries



Summary: Another simplified look at what Microsoft is doing to save money

LAST week we showed that Microsoft was hiring in Reno, which helps its dodging of tax (there are even worse offences [1, 2, 3]). Here is more information on the subject:



The 11 new jobs that Microsoft announced at its Reno operation last week might be the harbinger of something bigger.

After all, the company launched its licensing operation in Reno with only 40 employees in 1997. Today, the Microsoft Licensing GP office employs 250 fulltime Microsoft staff and nearly 400 additional contract workers.

[...]

Microsoft Licensing GP in Reno handles support of licensing agreements with business customers and other organizations in North and South America.


Nowhere in the article does it talk about the impact on tax.

In the video above [via], Reifman, who is a former Microsoft employee, says that Microsoft uses Reno as a form of front. "Its Nevada employees are tools it's using to avoid this tax," he alleges.

He then talks about Microsoft's movement towards India, which is also in this week's news (Microsoft was accused of tax evasion in India and found guilty).

From the Seattle Times:

Microsoft India boss: More overseas work rotations coming



The head of Microsoft's India business group, Ravi Venkatesan, told the Wall Street Journal that companies will be rotating talent to fast-growing countries and having more Indian workers spend time abroad to develop experience.


As we stated last week, "there is a lot to be learned from Microsoft's hiring/layoffs patterns, mostly because Microsoft favours areas of cheaper labour (like China and India) and areas of tax dodging, e.g. Ireland. We provided a lot of evidence before."

More from the Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft Mines India Talent



Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Corp. (India) Pvt. Ltd. unit, recently engaged in an email discussion with Wall Street Journal New Delhi Bureau Chief Paul Beckett on topics ranging from the perception of Indian management at multinational corporations to India's technological future. Mr. Venkatesan is responsible for Microsoft's marketing, operational and business development efforts in India.


So to summarise, Microsoft does not properly pay taxes in the United States and it does not keep its workforce in the United States, either. What a selfish company. The laws need to be amended.

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