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Seattle passes payroll tax targeting employees who earn over 150k

aociswundumho

Capitalist Pig
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Seattle passes payroll tax targeting Amazon and other big businesses


When you tax something, get less of it. If you tax high paying jobs, you'll get fewer high paying jobs.

Oh, and in case you have to ask, government employees are exempt:


This should give you some idea as to why they exempted government employees:

Why The City Of Seattle And Their Police Department Is In Trouble

Ain't democracy grand?
 



Seattle has the 4th highest avg income of any city in the US. Amazon pays hardly any tax, in any way. They have many employees on govt assistance due to low pay. Large corps have been raking in profits while the homeless pop increases and affordable housing disappears due to increased land cost. Sounds like a good plan to me.
 
The solution seems rather obvious - large (thus evil?) businesses, which have been narrowly targeted for special tax penalties, should not remain located in Seattle, WA. This is why such tax the hell out of "the rich" plans are said to only work at the federal government level - it is just too easy to have folks vote with their feet when such schemes are implemented at the city, county or state level.
 

Poor, poor corporate america. My heart is bleeding for them.

I swear the republicans are the true socialists who want everything for free with their constant griping about taxes. Why do you keep supporting a system where ten percent of the people own eighty percent of the money?
 

Government always exempts itself from equal treatment under the law. Why anyone believes government is honest or gives a damn about people is hard to understand. The Seattle city government as pure corruption and doesn't give a damn about anyone but themselves.
 

Salaries are not corporate income (making profits higher) they are a corporate business expense (making profits lower). How can folks who claim to want workers to be paid more also support taxing employers more because they are paying higher wages/salaries?
 

If you were to look at Amazon's financial statements, you would see that it does in fact, pay taxes. Roughly $1 Billion in 2017 and nearly $1.2 Billion in 2018 (income taxes at state and local levels and international taxes). Amazon takes advantage of several incentives, including a large investment in Research and Development, investments in property and equipment and employee stock compensation. It reinvests profits into its operations.
 

It is quite true that on the State level it makes it easy for corporations to escape tax plans. However, corporations don't really pay a lot of taxes either, and some businesses can easily move production or headquarters elsewhere in order to bypass the taxes too.

What we need is a global tax.

Step 1: Take over the world
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit
 

Amazon pays what little it can get away with. It's no different here in the UK:

Why is Amazon still paying little tax in the UK?
 

Corporations do not pay taxes - they collect them from their customers and forward them to the government. Taxation expenses, like payroll expenses, are just another cost of sales (doing business?) thus must be passed on to the end consumer (included in the price of goods/services) in order to remain (profitably) in business.
 

I describe it as money that could be used for company raises redistributed to someone who’s votes you need. In the end, the consumer pays the bills.
 

that can be challenged in court as unfair tax targetting.
 
chuckiechan said:
I describe it as money that could be used for company raises redistributed to someone who’s votes you need. In the end, the consumer pays the bills.
Click to expand...

Many fail to see that (bolded above) simple truth.
 

Their average warehouse worker makes 30k a year.
Their average salary for skilled positions ranges greatly.

Amazon.com Inc range from an average of $59,558 to $152,575.
 

again you are talking about logic and reason to people that do not understand such concepts.
 
chuckiechan said:
I describe it as money that could be used for company raises redistributed to someone who’s votes you need. In the end, the consumer pays the bills.
Click to expand...

consumer always pays the bills. it is something these people do not understand.
 
i am sure Dallas, Atlanta, or some other city with a great hub would love those jobs

Let the blue states continue to shoot themselves in the head and let their tax base companies leave

The red states love the high paying jobs coming into their economies

Tesla is another great example...soon to leave California....when will the progressives/liberals learn?
 

This may surprise you but taxation is not a huge reason for a business to stay or go.
France has way, way higher tax than the US and companies still stay because they like being in France and they value their staff who won't just move with them if they decide to go to a US state for tax reasons.
 

You seem to have missed my point entirely - there is plenty of the US which is not located in Seattle, WA.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
You seem to have missed my point entirely - there is plenty of the US which is not located in Seattle, WA.
Click to expand...

Yep, and companies don't flee just because they face slightly more tax for them or the people they employ.
 
Last edited:

Good luck getting anyone on the political left to accept that. They simple can't or won't understand tax incidence.
 



I hardly count international taxes as respects Americans. But let's not forget the $162 million in federal income tax — an effective tax rate of 1.2% on over $13 billion in profits, in 2019. Woo-woo!
 
ludin said:
Their average warehouse worker makes 30k a year.
Their average salary for skilled positions ranges greatly.

Amazon.com Inc range from an average of $59,558 to $152,575.
Click to expand...



The avg warehouse worker salary in Seattle, WA is $35,626 and it’s a safe bet that w/o Amazon in the avg the figure would be a fair bit higher.

Warehouse Worker Salary in Seattle, WA | Salary.com.
 
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