This was one of the comments on the ZDNet post about the Chrome Documents. Sent an email to Jeff Reifman today and I’m looking forward to his response.
Posted by Ole Man - 04/19/09
http://crosscut.com/2008/02/02/microsoft/11167/
The Redmond company makes products here but records software sales to PC makers and high-volume customers through an operation in Nevada, where there is no corporate tax. So Washington is missing out on revenue it could use for badly needed infrastructure needs – like replacement of the 520 bridge. By Jeff Reifman
When I heard that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had invoked the phrase "creative capitalism" at last month's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, it reminded me how Microsoft avoids paying taxes on Washington-made software by selling it through Nevada. Since 1997, I estimate, the company has avoided paying more than $528 million in state taxes while racking up $92 billion in profit and distributing more than $42 billion in dividends to shareholders. Microsoft's creative capitalism has deprived Washington state a lot of tax revenue it needs to pay for critical infrastructure such as replacing the aging 520 bridge that many of its employees use to get to and from corporate headquarters in Redmond.
In 2004, I wrote about Microsoft's tax practices in Seattle Weekly. Since then, the process has continued unabated as Microsoft's revenues have continued to grow.
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2004-09-29/news/citizen-microsoft.php
Citizen Microsoft
It's time we stopped acquiescing to the behemoth in Redmond, because what's good for big business isn't necessarily good for Washington.
http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulemaker/2000/rulemaker000217.htm
Why Microsoft's Stock Options Scare Me
Forget Windows 2000. As far as I can tell, the single most lucrative product Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) sells is its own stock. Microsoft receives almost as much cash inflow from the stock market as it does by selling goods and services. Here's how:
Basically, Microsoft receives cash by issuing employee stock options, after which the company then receives billions of dollars in tax deductions from the IRS for doing so. Add in the warrants it sells on its own stock, and the company made over $5 billion off the stock market last year (fiscal year ended July 1999), tax-free. For comparison, its after-tax net income was only $7.8 billion. Microsoft may not be much in the programming department, but its accountants are impressive.
http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/03/31/apple.tax.vs.ms.tax/
'Apple tax' really Microsoft tax?
Not only are Mac buyers not paying an especially hefty Apple tax, Windows users are the ones paying more for their systems in the end, an editorial claims. Whereas Apple's gross margin for the past five years is said to have been 31.83 percent, Microsoft's margin is noted to have been 81.69 percent. Most of the money is said to have been wasted, moreover, on unsuccessful products such as Vista, the Zune and Live Search.
More tangible costs to owning a Windows computer are argued to include the common trope of resale value, as a three-year old MacBook may be worth half its original cost at the same time as a Dell might be worth only 20 percent. Windows users may further have to invest in anti-virus software, as a result of the OS being targeted more often. If such software is purchased on an annual basis, it may significantly raise the true price of Windows.
Any more "GOOD" evidence you want to present for Microshaft?
