* Posts by robbie rob

5 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Oct 2015

Amazon exec tells UK peers: No, we don't want to be dominant. Also, we don't fancy being taxed on revenues

robbie rob

yeah, but...

Insurance companies - have you looked at the firms actually providing the services? A lot of commercial contracts have firms in low tax areas as being the ultimate beneficiary / provider. Check them out.

There are many services related businesses that operate in similar ways, where you have a contract in place, agreeing to pay some recipient in an offshore location.

I dont really see much difference between the tech firms, and services firms, due to the exportability of the contractual entity. And many of the tech firms are only shells, which can be involved in the sale of goods as well; look at Ebay.

No, no me the issue is broadening the tax base. Transfer pricing agreements are all good and well, but these are often negotiated. The ultimate outcome seems to be simply what HMRC or whoever can extract after discussions.

If we make things too difficult, these firms will simply go elsewhere, and the goods will be more expensive for the final consumer, because the opportunity to run as efficient a business as possible, including tax efficiency, will have been destroyed.

This may not be popular, but corporate tax is an inefficient mechanism. I'm surprised it's even used any more, and frankly is an unfair mechanism that only hammers the low-hanging fruit of firms who cannot afford the best accountants. Far better to have some broad-based VAT / consumption tax; everyone has to eat and have a roof over their heads, and no matter how good your accountant is, you still need to buy food and keep yourself+family somewhere.

Brit broke anti-terror law by refusing to cough up passwords to cops

robbie rob

Re: Defeating Draconian laws

Truecrypt or similar?

robbie rob

Since when has "you have the right to remain silent" = "you are a terrorist" ???

What the hell?

Seriously, privacy seems to be under increasing pressure. Why? If the judge thinks privacy is no longer "allowed", then perhaps the judge can publish their credit card details online, and we can see what happens next. Hmm?

Never. Gonna. Happen.

Because there is one set of rules for them, and another set for everyone else. Total BS.

And not to want to dig too deeply, but has it occurred to anyone that the only reason he was targeted this time was at the request of another power to get a hold of the information he obtained overseas? I would not have thought it possible in this age of democracy that our own government would oppress a traveler and inflict yet greater degrees of profiling. It beggars belief.

UK ISPs may be handed cock-blocking powers

robbie rob

I wonder if things like BBC's iPlayer might get caught by this? Imagine trying to play something from the BBC and being asked for ID. How would you even do that if launching it from a smart TV?

And if it was not possible to obtain the ID, would that mean that the BBC service would be forced to shut?

Silicon Valley now 'illegal' in Europe: Why Schrems vs Facebook is such a biggie

robbie rob

ms datacentres

Not sure if you know but ms have 2 eu dcs. One in ireland one in belgium.

MS have recently gained approval for cloud storage for sensitive data. They have concluded a deal with the MoD. Think about that for a moment.

The NHS also can now store patient data in the cloud.

This will leverage Azure and related tech. Any MS account exec will be only too happy to confirm as it opens a rich vein of sales opportunities. Not directly as they will spin the implementation off to a gold partner but in hosting anf licensing related annuity income streams.

Again. Think deeply about the strategic implications...