Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak speaks out on tax

bbc.co.uk

9 points·martin_··4 comments

With all due respect, but comments like these make Steve seem out of touch with reality. Yes there are some strange business expenses deducted, but to make a tax on revenue would be so hostile to starting businesses that only large incumbents could survive.

It's not unheard of, Washington state has one, to e.g. capture money from Boeing whatever the business climate is. Don't know if it has a floor to help startups, but it is thought that's one of the reason the state doesn't have all that many of them, especially really big ones, and why Microsoft moved there sometime after the point where they hired a professional CFO who was semi-horrified to find that prior to that whenever they had another 100K to sock away they'd just buy a US Treasury instrument.

The City of Portland (Oregon) has a revenue tax as well, with a floor of $50,000, regardless of incorporation (so it affects freelancers as well). It was actually $15,000 until 1998, jumped to $25,000 for 1999–2006, then $50,000 since.

Large corporations in the U.S. want to be treated like individuals (or better), e.g. the Citizens United prosecution and decision (unlimited political spending).

At the same time, they don't want to be treated like individuals: Taxes, prison time for criminal offenses, etc.

I have little sympathy for them.

This includes because, as a corporeal individual, I am in competition with them. And they've stacked the deck.

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