Thread

1. djoldman · 1790864377 · focus · HN ↗

   It often strikes me as quite the biased and one-sided take when a tax-paying entity is called out by the press for tax avoidance (NOT tax evasion, which is illegal). (yes TFA implies that Meta is breaking the law, I'm not talking about situations where entities break the law).

   Previously we've seen "The Secret IRS Files" from Propublica as well as other coverage of tax avoidance that never resulted in tax evasion charges. Coverage wide enough that it's arguably safe to assume that no laws were broken because there was quite the demand for an enforcement response.

   The funny thing is that a more accurate title for these pieces would be, "Federal Government Allows [tax-paying entity] a Massive Tax Break." And then the piece would be all about how the senate, congress, and president either explicitly wanted there to be this extreme tax loophole or was incompetent and allowed something they didn't mean to allow.

   Folks are continually getting upset and riled up about players in the economic system instead of who and what makes the rules.

   An analogous example: everyone got cranky about Martin Shkreli, mostly because he raised prices on Deraprim, although also because many would label him a brash jerk. But he went to jail for finance stuff, not raising prices. Why? Because raising prices in the way he did wasn't something the feds thought was illegal or wasn't something they thought he could be convicted of.

   Folks get mad at Musk, Zuckerberg, etc... if they're doing something illegal, ok yea that makes sense. If folks are mad about actions that are legal, it makes zero sense to be mad at the actor. Be mad at the people/entities who created the legal loopholes and laws.

   1. TeMPOraL · 1790872452 · focus · HN ↗

      There is also a third perspective to this: explicit tax loopholes and breaks are usually introduced for a reason, and that reason is almost never to incentivize bad behavior, at least not overtly (if it is, you have a much different and more acute problem on your hands). It's typically to counterbalance some burden[0] or incentivize behavior desired by the policy makers.

      So the question to ask is, what behavior is this trying to incentivize?

      And now the controversial part that's always missed: could that behavior be, in fact, good for society and the very reason for the loophole to exist? Could this - or any other case with similar headline - be just a "WONTFIX, works exactly as it should"?

      I ask that because a headline that has "${AI company}" and "data center" in it already blinds most readers in tech circles with rage and shuts down their critical thinking.

      --

      [0] - Possibly introduced by the same legislation - it's often better to pass a broad rule and special-case some specific exceptions, than try to predict and itemize every corner case in detail.

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