Boycott Uber, they suck as employers, and they suck at being a responsible business.
I’m glad this stuff is now going to get more attention.
Can’t wait until we start seeing “Taxes paid in the USA!” as a marketing bullet point.
How can they not be profitable? They make an app. Sure that costs money, and the network to support it, and severs etc. Beyond that, the bulk of the concept - people driving people places - requires no overhead (i.e. no cars to buy), no employees and associated benefits costs, no maintenance on the cars, etc. You are basically are just skimming the profits of the people doing the business - like ebay.
How the HELL can they not be profitable at this point?
The idea is that by moving to a tax haven, they keep more of that profit for themselves (or their investors).
Oh I get that. I guess I am hung up on that they aren’t yet profitable…
“sharing economy” my ass.
Uber screws the “drivers” to the point of a non livable wage, and now Uber wants to “offshore” to a tax haven to screw over the USA. I see a pattern of fuckery here.
Same reason Amazon often isn’t: All of that revenue is spent on expansion-which is often the right business choice, and definitely is in Uber’s case.
I guess David Plouffe & all their lobbyists will have to register as foreign agents now.
Oh no! These are only outliers! Lone wolf actions by the, ah, driver communication and accounting teams. We love the USA! We wouldn’t do anything to harm paying customers. Here’s a coupon!
I have a feeling that somehow when Trump wins and starts erecting his trade barriers, shit like this will somehow fly under the radar.
Their IP? Are they trying to configure their business so that they’re just a software company? They don’t want to employ their drivers because of those pesky employment laws, especially since states have the temerity to insist on creating their own, local laws. They’ve just discovered that if they’re in the brokering rides from independent contractors that they’re engaged in price fixing. So now is the idea is that they just license software to drivers who can do what they want with it?
The link to the coupon is dead…
[note sarcasm]
- Simply tax uber per kilometre / mile driven outside Bermuda.
Also…
Isn’t that where coca cola syrup is made at nearly the cost of the finished product, causing tragically low profits in the USA?
Is that just an urban legend?
“processes payments for rides outside the U.S…” a classic example of structural ambiguity.
The point is to NOT be profitable, since that incurs the most taxes.
And so companies will transfer their IP - everything from the company name to the software they develop - to a subsidiary in Bermuda. Then whatever profit they make, the subsidiary charges them that for use of the company name and software.
Then they can borrow money from that subsidiary, and write off the interest payments (that the subsidiary charges them) on their taxes. And if need be the subsidiary can “forgive” the loan so they don’t have to repay it.
The down-side is that they’ll have to visit Bermuda one a year to keep it legal. With the subsidiary paying for the trip and resort. It’s a business expense after all.
It’s fuckery all the way down.
Don’t worry; Uber drivers are only a temporary thing, used to establish the company around the world.
They’ll eventually be replaced with self-driving cars. Uber will be the biggest customer of self-driving cars, and the biggest supplier of self-driving cars as a service.
