Steve Ballmer says Microsoft will move programmers out of the country
if Obama goes through with revising tax shelter legislation to make American corporations pay more of the taxes that they're supposed to.
I am shocked, shocked I say.
Let 'em. Meanwhile, impose legislation that any company that isn't based in the US and doesn't pay American taxes doesn't get to lobby Congress, they have to go through the Department of State via whatever country they're based in. And since they're not an American corporation, they lose preference points for government contracts to American corporations. Hmmm, Oracle's SuSe Linux on government desktops and servers instead of Windows? More Oracle database on government servers instead of Microsoft SQL Server? Need to file a lawsuit against an American company that pays American taxes to protect your patents? We'll get back to you on that. "May I see your passport to reenter the country, Mr. Ballmer? (rubber glove goes *snap) Follow me into this back room, please?"
Same thing goes for Halliburton, now HQ'd in Qatar.
It's one thing to move manufacturing out of the country to save manufacturing costs, but manufacturing costs are almost nonexistent when it comes to the costs of Microsoft software. What do we get (at work) most of the time when we buy a copy of SQL Server? A single CD and a couple dozen sheets of paper. When we buy another license? We don't even get the CD, we might get a half dozen sheets of paper.
Lower the corporate tax rate if it will get the bastards to pay, but have a bunch of really big sticks behind your back if they start making threats like that.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAKluP7yIwJY
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/06/1153217/Ballmer-Threatens-To-Pull-Out-of-the-US?art_pos=2
I am shocked, shocked I say.
Let 'em. Meanwhile, impose legislation that any company that isn't based in the US and doesn't pay American taxes doesn't get to lobby Congress, they have to go through the Department of State via whatever country they're based in. And since they're not an American corporation, they lose preference points for government contracts to American corporations. Hmmm, Oracle's SuSe Linux on government desktops and servers instead of Windows? More Oracle database on government servers instead of Microsoft SQL Server? Need to file a lawsuit against an American company that pays American taxes to protect your patents? We'll get back to you on that. "May I see your passport to reenter the country, Mr. Ballmer? (rubber glove goes *snap) Follow me into this back room, please?"
Same thing goes for Halliburton, now HQ'd in Qatar.
It's one thing to move manufacturing out of the country to save manufacturing costs, but manufacturing costs are almost nonexistent when it comes to the costs of Microsoft software. What do we get (at work) most of the time when we buy a copy of SQL Server? A single CD and a couple dozen sheets of paper. When we buy another license? We don't even get the CD, we might get a half dozen sheets of paper.
Lower the corporate tax rate if it will get the bastards to pay, but have a bunch of really big sticks behind your back if they start making threats like that.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAKluP7yIwJY
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/06/1153217/Ballmer-Threatens-To-Pull-Out-of-the-US?art_pos=2