Facebook cheats on its taxes again

Once again, Facebook paid virtually no tax in New Zealand last year:

Facebook paid just $43,000 of tax in New Zealand last year, according to financial statements filed with the Companies Office.

The social media behemoth reported its New Zealand income rose 41 per cent to $1.2 million for the 2014 calendar year.

However, substantial expenses meant the company was able to claim a loss.

It paid $43,261 of tax, or about the same amount as a mid-range doctor or lawyer would.

Those "expenses" were almost certainly charged by another part of Facebook, as part of its global tax evasion strategies. All perfectly legal, of course, but the net result is that we get robbed, other countries get robbed, while Facebook piles up cash in Caribbean tax havens and lobbies the US government for a tax holiday so it can repatriate it to its shareholders tax free. Isn't it time they paid their fair share, here and everywhere else?