<story><title>Amazon and Starbucks pay less tax than sausage stall, says Austria</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37259278</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>readittwice</author><text>Hi, I am Austrian and I read the original interview in an austrian newspaper. It was very unspectacular and I am quite amused that it got international attention.&lt;p&gt;Our prime minister is wrong or at least slightly populist here. Yeah, Facebook&amp;#x2F;Google are not paying advertising duty. But no one does, at least in the internet. You only have to pay this duty if you advertise in TV, Radio, newspaper, etc. but it does NOT apply for the internet! See for yourself on the homepage of the austrian finance ministry (unfortunately in german): &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bmf.gv.at&amp;#x2F;steuern&amp;#x2F;a-z&amp;#x2F;Werbeabgabe.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bmf.gv.at&amp;#x2F;steuern&amp;#x2F;a-z&amp;#x2F;Werbeabgabe.html&lt;/a&gt;. The law is from 2000, so probably before advertising in the internet became big.&lt;p&gt;Even if they change this law to include the internet, the Austrian companies that want to advertise would have to pay this tax (5% btw) since Google&amp;#x2F;Facebook do not have any offices in Austria (see chapter &amp;quot;Abgabenschuldner&amp;quot; in the link above). Google&amp;#x2F;Facebook don&amp;#x27;t even need to care about this law! (apart from that extending the law could make advertising in the internet more unattractive).&lt;p&gt;Why should they even pay corporate taxes in Austria? As already said they don&amp;#x27;t have any offices here.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon and Starbucks pay less tax than sausage stall, says Austria</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37259278</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>davidf18</author><text>Amazon and Starbucks spend a lot of money to hire highly competent tax attorneys and other staff to minimize their payment of taxes.  Instead of complaining, countries need to pay more money to hire even brighter people to write better tax laws.  Citizens of these countries need to elect officials who will do the hiring and not have obstructive laws that prohibits the payment of the large salaries and fees necessary to hire these competent people.</text></comment>