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[News] Microsoft #1 at Legalised Bribery and Why It Should be Banned

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Return on Lobbying Investment: 22,000%

,----[ Quote ]
| There’s a reason why lobbying has boomed so much over the last decade. The 
| potential return on investment is just too lucrative to pass up. Some things 
| are easy to quantify, a contract, an earmark, or a direct payment for 
| services. But other things, like tax breaks, can take a little bit more time 
| to figure out (at least for now). For example, a University of Kansas study, 
| to be released today, will show that firms pushing for a “tax holiday” in 
| 2004 received a 22,000% return on their lobbying investment. I’ll write that 
| number again: 22,000%.       
`----

http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/04/09/return-on-lobbying-investment-22000/


Recent:

Microsoft Leads in Lobbying Largesse

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is leading the tech industry’s charge up Capitol Hill, according to 
| statistics released Monday. 
| 
| The world's largest software company spent $9 million on lobbyists to make 
| its case in issues including taxes and trade, according to statistics 
| compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.  
`----

http://www.redherring.com/Home/24187


Tax benefit helped Microsoft's 3Q earnings

,----[ Quote ]
| Turns out Microsoft and Uncle Sam have been going back through the company's 
| books from 2000 to 2003. Not knowing how that would end up, Microsoft 
| had "over accrued" its tax provision in past quarters, said Colleen Healy, 
| general manager of investor relations. With the review settled, the company 
| was able to reduce that provision.    
`----

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004377713_btdownload28.html


Microsoft in tax evasion soup

,----[ Quote ]
| Software major Microsoft Corp’s Indian subsidiary has been issued a 
| show-cause notice for non-payment of service tax worth Rs 127 crore. The tax 
| has been claimed on services offered to Microsoft Singapore by way of 
| marketing support.    
`----

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/Microsoft_in_tax_evasion_soup/rssarticleshow/2977840.cms


Related:

Wis. Bill to Require Tax Loophole Data

,----[ Quote ]
| Wisconsin Bill Would Require More Reporting on Tax Loopholes
| 
| [...]
| 
| A message left with Microsoft was not immediately returned.
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071219/wi_corporate_taxes.html?.v=4


Microsoft says to borrow money for Yahoo deal

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp said on Monday it may borrow money for the first time in its 
| history to fund a portion of its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo 
| Inc.  
`----

http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN0455692920080205


Bill Gates: Rich Individuals Should Pay More Tax, Wealthy Corporations Less?

,----[ Quote ]
| As Taxing Tennessee points out, Bill Gates opposes eliminating the death tax 
| but is quite happy to have local and state taxes eliminated for his 
| company...  
`----

http://seekingalpha.com/article/65465-bill-gates-rich-individuals-should-pay-more-tax-wealthy-corporations-less?source=yahoo


,----[ Quote ]
| My background is finance and accounting....
|
| 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.
`----

http://www.mail-archive.com/futurew...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/msg03323.html 


Microsoft EULA lands it with $175m Indian tax headache

,----[ Quote ]
| Basing its ruling on the terms of Microsoft's own EULA (end-user license 
| agreement), an Indian court has ordered the company to pay tax on royalty 
| income generated in the country, Tax India Online (TIOL) reports.  
| 
| [...]
| 
| “Unacceptable tax avoidance typically involved the creation of complex 
| artificial structures by which, as though by the wave of a magic wand, the 
| tax payer conjures out of the air a loss, or a gain, or expenditure, or 
| whatever it may be, which otherwise would never have existed. These 
| structures are designed to achieve an adventitious tax benefit for the 
| taxpayer, and in truth are no more than raids on the public funds at the 
| expense of the general body of taxpayers, and as such are unacceptable.      
`----

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/31/microsoft_india_tax_ruling/


Cheers not jeers to Speaker Chopp on the Microsoft tax concession

,----[ Quote ]
| The Columbia Basin Herald this past week characterized House Speaker Frank 
| Chopp as being a Forrest Gump, "stupid is as stupid does" villain for 
| opposing big proposed tax breaks for Microsoft and Yahoo. The tax concession, 
| those companies said, were necessary to keep them from fleeing Grant County, 
| where they have huge server farms. The requests were similar to the $3.2 
| billion in breaks Boeing Co. got from Governor Gary Locke and the Legislature 
| when it threatened to take some of its assembly operations elsewhere.      
`----

http://www.crosscut.com/business-technology/12933/Cheers+not+jeers+to+Speaker+Chopp+on+the+Microsoft+tax+concession/


Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept.

,----[ Quote ]
| Nearly a decade after the government began its landmark effort to break 
| up Microsoft, the Bush administration has sharply changed course by
| repeatedly defending the company both in the United States and abroad 
| against accusations of anticompetitive conduct, including the recent
| rejection of a complaint by Google.
| 
| [...]
| 
| In the most striking recent example of the policy shift, the top 
| antitrust official at the Justice Department last month urged state
| prosecutors to reject a confidential antitrust complaint filed by 
| Google that is tied to a consent decree that monitors Microsoft's 
| behavior. Google has accused Microsoft of designing its latest 
| operating system, Vista, to discourage the use of Google's desktop 
| search program, lawyers involved in the case said. 
`----

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/business/10microsoft.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin


Microsoft, The European Union, and the United States: A Statement by the AAI

,----[ Quote ]
| The AAI comments on the European Court of First Instance's upholding of the 
| EC's Microsoft decision, taking the USDOJ to task for poor diplomacy and 
| mistaken policy in its criticism of the EC.  
`----

http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/Archives/miceu3.ashx


Microsoft sets spinners on court verdict

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft may have lost in court, but it quickly tried to win the war of 
| media reaction via organisations like CompTIA, the Computing Technology 
| Industry Association and ACT (the Association for Competitive Technology) 
| which both intervened in court on its side.   
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/17/reaction_microsoft_verdict/



US politicians go to bat for Microsoft

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/


Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff

,----[ Quote ]
| E-mails released by the committee show that Abramoff, often
| with the knowledge of the groups' leaders, exploited the tax-exempt
| status and leveraged the stature of the organizations to build
| support among conservatives for legislation or government action
| sought by clients including Microsoft Corp., mutual fund company
| DH2 Inc., Primedia Inc.'s Channel One Network, and Brown-Forman,
| maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey.
`----

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html
http://tinyurl.com/y2rbpu


Politicians in Microsoft's Pocket

,----[ Quote ]
| Continuing on the theme of which politicians are receiving money from 
| who. Here is a list of candidates who took money from MSFT.
`----

http://www.fonz.net/blog/archives/2007/06/04/politicians-in-microsofts-pocket/


Politics and tech companies: follow the money

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft took first place with $651,100 given out, while
| Hewlett-Packard gave only $185,550, and Gateway gave a paltry
| $2,000. Microsoft's donations certainly illustrate well the true
| size of the company and the extent of its political concerns.
`----

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html


Microsoft Paid Lobbyist $160,000

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Paid Paid Bingham McCutchen $160,000 to Lobby Federal Gov't in 
| First Half of 2007 
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070905/microsoft_lobbying.html?.v=1


Microsoft's 'Men in Black' kill Florida open standards legislation

,----[  Quote
| It was just a bit of text advocating open data formats that was slipped into
| a Florida State Senate bill at the last minute with no fanfare, but within
| 24 hours three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits, were
| pressuring members of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations
| (COGO) to remove the words they didn't like from Senate bill 1974. 
`----

http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/2019244&from=rss


Microsoft Looks for the Big Guns in OOXML In-Fighting

,----[ Quote ]
| Bill Gates has reportedly been making phone calls to the Secretary of Defense 
| and the Secretary of Commerce to push the American National Standards 
| Institute to ignore the votes of its advisory committees and vote "yes" on 
| ISO standardizing Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) format, the one in 
| competition with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) pushed by IBM and Sun.    
| 
| Gates reportedly picked up the phone when the last INCITS ballot failed by 
| one vote to support Microsoft. 
`----

http://xml.sys-con.com/read/419573_p.htm
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