Rise of Amazon and Ebooks Force German Publishers To Reinvent Selves

[cfrizz]

Sorry to inform you but tax dodging is the standard operating procedure of ALL major corporations!

Look no further than cruise lines, thousands of cruises leave from the USA but not ONE ship is registered in the USA.

[CommonReader]

That may be so, but there is no need for me to buy my books from a "major corporation". My local bookshop will do.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Sorry to inform you but tax dodging is the standard operating procedure of ALL major corporations!

Look no further than cruise lines, thousands of cruises leave from the USA but not ONE ship is registered in the USA.

And also the standard operating procedure of ALL individuals. Unless they are totally dumb.

And in the case given by you --- I am sure it would be a good idea to register the ships in the US and charge double for the cruises. That would really bring in the guests.

[forsooth]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

I seriously dislike Amazon for the dodgy tax deal they made with Luxembourg. The price for the end customer is the same, with Amazon pocketing the 16% difference in VAT. Tax dodging seems to be one of the foundations of their business model. Apart from that Amazon is mostly creating crap jobs, poorly paid warehouse slaves and exploited delivery people. The kicking Amazon got in the national media for their poor employment conditions wasn't nearly as bad as they deserved.
I almost never buy books from them. I appreciate that my city of 300,000 still has at least a dozen bookshops, most of them independently owned. That is where I get my books; same price as Amazon + overnight delivery and maintaining decent jobs in the community.

Minister Book Propaganda hooked you into Matrix

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Sorry to inform you but tax dodging is the standard operating procedure of ALL major corporations!

Look no further than cruise lines, thousands of cruises leave from the USA but not ONE ship is registered in the USA.

Tax evasion and tax avoidance are two different things. One is illegal, and the other is right, moral and totally legal in the eyes of the US Supreme Court. Nothing wrong in legally using the infrastructure to your advantage when you can. It would be kind of stupid not to do so, in my opinion.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

That may be so, but there is no need for me to buy my books from a "major corporation". My local bookshop will do.

Unless your local bookshop sells only used books, you are buying them from a major corporation with a few layers of middleman involved. (Technically, that's true even if they're used, but for used books, you're not paying the major corporation. When you buy new, you're giving money to the publisher.)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Unless your local bookshop sells only used books, you are buying them from a major corporation with a few layers of middleman involved. (Technically, that's true even if they're used, but for used books, you're not paying the major corporation. When you buy new, you're giving money to the publisher.)

And those corporations rely on sub-contracted warehouses using minimum wage labor as one of their many tax avoidance strategies. Publishers? They have their own catalog of tricks for tax avoidance like... swiss subsidiaries...
No money-grubbing multinational is any saintlier than another--the main difference is in how they treat the paying customer.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Tax evasion and tax avoidance are two different things. One is illegal, and the other is right, moral and totally legal in the eyes of the US Supreme Court. Nothing wrong in legally using the infrastructure to your advantage when you can. It would be kind of stupid not to do so, in my opinion.

I agree 100%. Very few people pay more than they have to when Tax Time comes around.
Apache

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by Apache

I agree 100%. Very few people pay more than they have to when Tax Time comes around.
Apache

Whoa good buddy!

I pay more than I have to. I don't cheat.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

I pay more than I have to. I don't cheat.

Paying only what you have to is by definition not cheating.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Whoa good buddy!

I pay more than I have to. I don't cheat.

Really, you actually pay in more than you are required by law?

To those that like to whine and complain about corporations like Amazon who don't pay enough taxes I suggest that you contact your law makers. They are the ones who write such byzantine tax codes.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

I seriously dislike Amazon for the dodgy tax deal they made with Luxembourg. The price for the end customer is the same, with Amazon pocketing the 16% difference in VAT. Tax dodging seems to be one of the foundations of their business model.

I think it's completely silly to blame Amazon for paying all the tax it's to pay. Luxembourg is in the EU; if there is a problem with Amazon paying their tax rate, the problems is either with Lux. or with the EU.

Apart from that Amazon is mostly creating crap jobs, poorly paid warehouse slaves and exploited delivery people.

I know that there were problems with a subcontractor in Germany, but, seriously - slaves? Exploited delivery workers? It sounds like you believe that working itself is an imposition.
[quote]


The kicking Amazon got in the national media for their poor employment conditions wasn't nearly as bad as they deserved.

I almost never buy books from them. I appreciate that my city of 300,000 still has at least a dozen bookshops, most of them independently owned. That is where I get my books; same price as Amazon + overnight delivery and maintaining decent jobs in the community.

Of course paying the same price and getting overnight delivery make it much easier to avoid using Amazon; paying $20 more and waiting 3-6 weeks makes not using Amazon more difficult here.