Bonum Certa Men Certa

Call for Federal Action Against Microsoft (and Gates) Tax Dodge

"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



Summary: The financial affairs of Microsoft and its former chairman raise serious questions which the public demands addressal of

WHETHER one calls it a "tax dodge" or "tax evasion" (Microsoft was found guilty in India, for example), it is clear that poor Microsoft (and poor Bill) would rather let all those rich taxpayers take the bills. Yes, the same goes for the Gates Foundation, which is profiteering through investments while not paying tax (it is registered as a charitable establishment). We wrote quite extensively about Microsoft and income tax in, e.g.:





There is a new call for citizens of the United States to contact their representatives and complain about Microsoft's tax dodge, which has cost the mostly-impoverished population billions of dollars all around the world (it is them who paid from their own pockets for what Microsoft ought to have paid). From a concerned and informed citizen:

When you buy Microsoft software in a box for personal use, you pay sales tax at the point of delivery. But, when large corporations purchase Microsoft software, they are actually buying an electronic download with the right to install that software on a pre-determined number of computers. The same goes for PC manufacturers such as Dell that preinstall Microsoft Windows 7 on its computers.

[...]

Aren’t there laws against this?

According to the Department of Revenue, to avoid this tax, a company, like Microsoft, would need to “effectively transfer the property to a related company (e.g., parent and subsidiary corporations) located outside Washington” and recognize income from the value of the transfer on its Washington taxes. It’s not clear that Microsoft has done this – and there are legal doctrines to charge a corporation if it illegally evades its taxes:

1) The doctrine of Nexus represents ties or links that a corporation has with a state. Microsoft clearly has nexus in Washington given its 40,224 employees, 9.8 million square feet and 79 physical sites. Its software also has nexus here as most is built, tested, marketed, sold and distributed from these facilities. Microsoft’s historical use of the laws of Washington to govern its licensing contracts, its Washington-based lawyers and its use of Washington’s courts to defend it also contribute to the nexus of its licensing business.

2) The Step Doctrine focuses on whether steps of a transaction may stand alone or, rather, whether the transaction should be treated as a whole. It can be applied when a corporation creates additional artificial steps to appear as if it is not liable to pay tax.

[...]

Do Microsoft’s Practices Constitute Illegal Tax Evasion?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been asking Washington’s Department of Revenue to publish a finding on the legality of this kind of tax practice. The department is required to protect the privacy of taxpayers and therefore cannot answer specific questions about Microsoft only questions about specific practices in the abstract.


From Slashdot's summary of the above:

For tax purposes, Microsoft reports that it's earned its estimated $143 billion in software licensing revenue in Nevada, where there is no licensing tax, as we discussed a few weeks ago. However, for legal purposes, Microsoft relies on Washington law and its underfunded courts to defend its contracts as it did in Microsoft Licensing GP vs. TSR Silicon. Application of common legal doctrines such as nexus, the step doctrine, and alter ego theory may lead to findings that Microsoft owes the state more than $1 billion in taxes, interest, and penalties.


Not enough attention is being paid to Bill Gates' stash of questionable investment funds that he shelters inside a supposedly-philanthropist body, just like other people with his type of wealth. They have found a loophole, so even if laws are ever passed to effectively tax the upper class, most of their money will be kept away from applicability of such laws.

People must begin asking themselves these important questions and learn about the subject using the means and time available. The mainstream press is the friend of those who are buying/funding it, so rarely does it have the courage to expose those who fund it; doing so would essentially drive them out of business because money comes from business (advertisers), not readers and viewers. To press/broadcast, readers and viewers are the products that they sell to advertisers, i.e. businesses that are the real clients. To whit:

"Truthfulness with me is hardly a virtue. I cannot discriminate between truths that and those that don't need to be told."

--Margot Asquith



In response to our last post on the subject, namely the one about the Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, one person replied with the following:

Just look at who all the food-related groups which the Rockefeller Foundation funds:

CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) - the "food police" who back in March 1988 said that trans fats were "relatively harmless"

* Consumer Federation of America (CFA) - used to be headed by Monsanto shill Carol Tucker ForemanMonsanto

PETA - animal "rights" group which kills most of the pets they "rescue" (actually funded by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors)

* Nutrition Action newsletter, March 1988, "The Truth About Trans - Hydrogenated Oils Aren't Guilty As Charged"


There is also this new gem about the Gates Foundation:

The Financial Times last week ran a story titled “Bill Gates shifts focus to hunger”, covering a major speech by Gates detailing a new emphasis by his foundation on food security and agricultural output in developing countries.

[...]

Second, will the Foundation invest in the type of engagement and advocacy on trade policy issues (exhibit A: subsidies to developed world agricultural industry) that deeply influence food security, especially in sub-Saharan Africa? While the development of new technologies and tools is critical and has often been the Gates Foundation’s sweet-spot, major progress will be held back without a serious shift in the global economic system around agriculture and food.


Here is more information about what the Gates Foundation is doing in Africa [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's "FUD-as-a-Service" (Against Linux) Not Functioning Well
This is the kind of contribution companies like Microsoft and Google have to offer to society
Betanews Becoming a Slopfarm is "Betanews Growing Alongside You", According to Betanews
Their first 'article' in over two weeks is 52% "AI-generated" (slop), 33% mixed (edited slop), 18% human-written, says an advanced scanner.
Double-Dipping the Docket for Microsoft Glory and Censorship of Microsoft Critics
same lawyer, same barrister, all US, all Microsoft
 
GNOME Does Not Campaign Against Microsoft, KDE Does
It's good to see that KDE is still active in promotion of Free software - a term that it uses
Slopwatch: BetaNews, Linuxsecurity, and Other Prolific Slopfarms
name and shame the sites that establish such proliferation of slop
Gemini Links 18/06/2025: Birch Lake and Loon Pond
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 17, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Links 17/06/2025: "The Grift Economy" and Kubernetes Does Proprietary
Links for the day
Coffee Day and LLM Sloppers
The LLM slop "bros" are a lot like fake-money bros; they lie to people, they boast that they lie to people, and they're generally bad people, BS artists in colloquial terms
TheLayoff Censorship of IBM Threads Has Gone Truly Ludicrous
we do not argue that TheLayoff should not cull LLM slop
More Stallmanites Added to FSF Board and Summer Fundraiser Commences
There's some good news from the FSF
Gemini Links 17/06/2025: Consistency and Notes About NixOS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 16, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 16, 2025
July 2 2025 Would Not be First Big Wave of Microsoft Layoffs Before Major National Holiday
July 2 or 3 mark the start of a very long weekend in the US
IDG's NetworkWorld Seems to Have Just Become LLM Slop
If IDG (now controlled by China) does that in at least one site, why not the rest? Only a matter of time?
Gemini Links 16/06/2025: Free Lunches and Bookmarklet for Mastodon
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol Turns 6 on Friday
Active (online) Gemini capsules are estimated by Lupa at over 3,000
IBM: Less Than a Month's Severance for Each Decade of Service
Yes, decade!
Taking a Lesson From Denmark and Greenland? Iceland Shows New Lows for Windows, All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
If Microsoft sabotages systems of judges at the Hague (in order to appease the insane man who wanted to invade Greenland), why won't its neighbour Iceland take note?
BetaNews Has Just Deleted Its Latest 'Article' or Got Cracked Again and Restored From Outdated Backup Again
BetaNews seems to be in some serious trouble right now
Software Freedom is "Activism" Because the Corporate Agenda Revolves Around Bribery, Deceit, and Betrayal
At the end Software Freedom will win because it's on the same side as truth and lawfulness
The EPO, Europe's Largest Patent Office, Admits Outsourcing to Microsoft Slop
Their sole goal is to make more money
Links 16/06/2025: EchoLeak and NASA Teaming up With India
Links for the day
The Better the Understanding or the More Nations Understand the Threat Posed by Microsoft, the Faster It'll be Eradicated
We believe that the thing to advocate is self-hosting and Free software... A lack of simplicity or absence of alternatives is a form of vendor lock-in
A Week of Sunlight
They say transparency is like sunlight to a vampire
"Linux" Sites That Went Astray
there are even worse things than shutdowns
Links 16/06/2025: Climate, Wildfires, Breaches, and Monopolies
Links for the day
Links 16/06/2025: Summer in Finland and Misunderstandings
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 15, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 15, 2025