Amazon.com defeats IRS appeal in U.S. tax dispute

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc on Friday defeated an appeal by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in what the online retailer has called a $1.5 billion dispute over its tax treatment of transactions with a Luxembourg subsidiary.In a 3-0 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle upheld a 2017 ruling by the U.S. Tax Court related to intangible assets that Amazon.com transferred in 2005 and 2006 to the unit, Amazon Europe Holding Technologies SCS. Intangible assets include such items as customer lists, intellectual property and software. The appeals court rejected a broader definition sought by the IRS that would have boosted Amazon.com’s tax bill.

replace the tax on business payrolls and the corporate income tax by a 20% VAT as the way to tax imports but not exports and bring in trillions of offshore earnings and investment dollars.
then replace the individual payroll tax by a 10% sales tax. earmark the 20% VAT for Social Security and the 10% national sales tax for Medicare.
and tax capital gains progressively,eg, 10% to $500K, 20% to $5 million, then 30% on capital gains over $5 million. Trump could propose a tax deal right now with Democrats & if they won’t go for it, then GOP could use it to get Trump re-elected and to win back the House & keep the Senate. Bush’s 15% capital gains tax did not go over well with tax fairness people......and Romney lost in 2012 over capital gains tax rates being considered grossly unfair.
trading stock or businesses for money does NOT deserve far lesser tax than when people trade WORK for money, because there is far more risk in trading WORK for money than when people trade stock for money or businesses for money & get to write off losses and investments. Suppose a person sells his house and moves across the country to take a job someplace else. Isn’t that a big risk? Do you get a big tax write off when it turns out to be a mistake or causes your marriage to end? NO!
Romney wanted people to believe that he was taking big risks with money & deserve zero tax on his gains, but clearly, to most people and to middle class and independents, there’s MORE risk being a laborer who trades WORK for money, than when a so-called “vulture capitalist” trades money for a dying business, invests to get it on its feet again, then sells it at a profit. One person risks money on mostly sure wins, while the other often risks all his time and money, his career and reputation to trade work for money. We need a tax code for the 21st century. The corporate income tax was decided by the Supreme Court to be an excise tax, ie a tax on goods, ie a consumption tax. GOP should get some backbone and eliminate the corporate income tax and the tax on business payrolls.....because the first is a bad consumption tax that hits workers and consumers, and which taxes exports but not imports, whereas the other is a regressive tax on jobs, wages and raises. The CEO pays the Social Security tax only on his first $118,000 of his multi million dollar income, whereas the miniumum wage earner who trades work for money pays the Social Security tax on his first dollar and on every dollar he trades work for.

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