04.26.10
Bill Gates Sr. Lobbies to Keep Tax Agenda Off Gates’ Tax Exemptions and Microsoft’s Tax Evasion
Summary: Lobbying from Bill Gates’ father in the state of Washington will continue to distract and allow his own family not to pay tax, while Microsoft will continue to legalise its own evasion of tax
WORKING behind the scenes at Microsoft there’s the firm of Bill Gates' father with its huge army of lobbyists. Earlier in the year, this firm was accused of enabling the looting of $500,000,000. This firm’s alleged misconduct would not be surprising given the Abramoff connection and it is clear that Bill Gates’ father not only participates directly in Gates’ latest business ventures but also in lobbying that can help remove Microsoft barriers. Microsoft does business directly with this firm, which also handled Microsoft’s relationship with SCO after it had attacked Linux.
Bill Gates’ father is now using his lobbying power to help decide on tax law. As a quick summary of Microsoft’s latest tax evasion scandal*, here is how Jeff Reifman put it in BoingBoing, not just Slashdot. Reifman used to work for Microsoft.
According to last week’s news, Bill Gates’ father is lobbying for ‘little’ Bill and maybe for Microsoft:
Washington tax activists — including the father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates — are borrowing a page from Oregon.
They announced a campaign Wednesday to put a high-earners’ income tax on the fall ballot. Oregon voters approved a similar measure earlier this year.
It is important to remember that he’s immune to taxation because a lot of the money is put in a so-called ‘charity’, which is exempt from taxation. Basically, rich people will be taxed, but Microsoft will continue to send its accounting to Nevada and pay almost no tax. The Gates family is already exempt from tax, assuming that it puts the money inside the foundation, in which case it uses this foundation at the expense of the state (to the detriment of citizens whose government suffers from enormous debt).
The lobbying from Gates Senior is also covered in [1, 2] and in this article which says:
Tax-reform advocate Bill Gates Sr. says the couples pulling in $400,000 or more annually who would be taxed, “can afford to pay.”
Microsoft employees do not make that much. Gates’ own foundation won’t pay, either. So who does that leave to suffer? Who does that benefit? To quote some more articles:
Bill Gates Sr., father of the Microsoft Corp. co-founder, was scheduled to headline an event Wednesday in Seattle where community leaders would announce their intentions about pursuing I-1077.
Gates’ sweetheart, the Seattle Times, says that Gates Senior is “leading” this initiative.
Bill Gates Sr. is leading a new initiative campaign for a state income tax on wealthier residents.
Gates says the current state tax system is unfair, and he expects voters will approve Initiative 1077 in November. Gates is father of the Microsoft co-founder and a longtime supporter of tax overhaul.
This is absolutely hilarious because it’s a revisionist lie for the Gates dynasty. People who do not pay tax now include a “longtime supporter of tax overhaul”? To whose favour? According to another article from the Seattle Times, Gates’ lobbying is working.
Gov. Chris Gregoire told reporters Friday she’ll sign the petition and probably vote for the high-earners income-tax initiative unveiled this week by Bill Gates Sr.
How about imposing taxes on the Gates family? How about starting to actually demand that Microsoft pays tax? That’s completely off the agenda and it’s not a coincidence. █
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* Evasion which it legalises using former Microsoft employees, who as state representatives let Nevada serve as a tax haven.
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