| When, in naval-gazing films and TV, an entertainer character insists on x % of "gross" revenue, this is why. There've been many articles and posts cited on HN that go into the tortured, and very profitable, machinations of entertainment industry financing and accounting. Some argue towards making such finance, e.g. taxes, simple to the point where it can't be gamed. The tradeoff is that finance is used as much if not more so than overt legislation, to steer policy, investment, and ultimately -- imperfect as they are -- outcomes. I'm not saying simplification is wrong. But keeping your system intact while you do it, is... well, not as simple as it might seem. But there is a lot of potential benefit. How much further would clean(er) energy be, if we weren't propping up carbon fuels to the tune of billions in subsidies every year (including a substantial part of e.g. the U.S. military budget)? Would the Mid-East be quite such a mess, if no one was continually pouring money into its weapons systems and dictatorships? Anyhoo, I typed way more than I intended. When an outfit is doing fantastically well, to all appearances, yet the profit is missing, then start looking at / going after the gross. They have to pay their way, just like everyone else. Perhaps all the more so, the more they insist upon being a "corporate person" with "personal" rights (e.g. speech, et al.). ---- P.S. As an actual person, with a few policy-minded exemptions aside, I am taxed on my gross income. Not my net. (E.g. I don't get to deduct my groceries, nor my auto insurance, nor...) (Although, state sales tax in the U.S. does vary by state and is often, when lowered, meant to lessen the regressive nature of said tax for low income earners with respect to essential goods -- you gotta eat.) Home owners get to deduct mortgage interest, while renters get no such break even though a significant chunk of their rent may effectively be paying the interest on the landlord's mortgage for the property. Pushing home ownership in the U.S. as a policy that apparently veered into the extreme, providing lots of marginal loans as raw inputs into the financial machinations that propelled the 2008 Great Recession. Anyway... I'm taxed against my gross income. There's no magic rule that says businesses can only be taxed against their net. It's all policy -- not natural law. And when they game the system beyond all measure, they should expect that, sooner or later, policy will be changed. The problem is in good part that, if they can make it later enough, they become another "too big". They've captured their regulation. |