taxes

YouTube cedes to Turkey and uses local Web domain

Turkey and YouTube have a checkered past, so today's news isn't a big surprise -- the video-sharing site will now operate under a local Web domain -- "com.tr" -- and be subject to the country's content regulations and taxes.

According to Reuters, Turkey had been working to get YouTube to agree to this set-up for some time.

"This is an important development," Turkish Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim told Reuters. "For a long time we have made a call to Internet firms in Turkey: 'You are operating in this country, … Read more

Congressional report dings Microsoft, HP for avoiding taxes

Maybe they needed something to occupy their attention before the presidential candidates go head to head, but a U.S. Senate committee says that two of tech's biggest companies have worked assiduously to reduce their tax bills.

Big surprise.

Still, it was worth the time of congressional staffers who today published an extensive report in advance of an afternoon Senate hearing today on loopholes in current tax law.

"Major U.S. corporations are increasingly earning their profits here but shipping them overseas to avoid paying the taxes they owe," Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and chairman … Read more

iPhone 5 preorders indicate hot demand

Friday's tech news roundup didn't plan ahead:

A rush of iPhone 5 preorders online have pushed back shipping dates at Apple and wireless carriers for at least two weeks. Some stores, like Wal-Mart and Target, are also offering iPhone 5 preorders for in-store pickup. The initial supply of iPhones for Apple preorders went in less than an hour, which is much faster than years prior. It shows that either demand is way up for this model, or Apple didn't have as many available for the preorder crowd (or a mix of both). We won't know for … Read more

Calif. to Amazon sellers: We're coming for those sales taxes

California's tax collectors are preparing to open a new front in their battle to collect sales taxes from Amazon.com customers.

A deal inked last year between Amazon and Sacramento means that, for most items shipped from the online retailer's warehouses, sales tax will be collected at checkout starting tomorrow. But, as CNET reported earlier this week, that doesn't apply to hundreds of thousands of items "fulfilled" by Amazon from its warehouses on behalf of other sellers.

That means a New York camera shop could have inventory located in an Amazon warehouse outside of San … Read more

Which state you'll pay more for an iPhone 5 in and why

Thousands of units of the new iPhone 5 and other popular smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy S III will likely fly off California store shelves the last week of September, and many of the consumers purchasing them will probably do a double take at the total on the receipt.

That's what happened to CNET reader Debi Scott, who read my story on how much sales tax from new iPhone sales could add to local government coffers (JP Morgan also took note of the iPhone 5's potential as an economic booster shortly thereafter) and thought I might be understating the case. Scott told me how she purchased two iPhone 4S smartphones last year for $199 each at an AT&T store in Visalia, Calif., and was charged more than $100 in sales tax.… Read more

Amazon shoppers will squeeze through Calif. tax loophole

Amazon.com's agreement with Sacramento officials means that, starting Saturday, it will collect sales taxes on items that it sells to California residents.

But Amazon will continue to not collect taxes on hundreds of thousands of items that it lists for sale on its Web site, stores in its warehouses, and packages for quick shipment to California residents.

Those orders -- called "fulfilled" by Amazon -- amount to a tax loophole that has left Sacramento tax collectors a tad unhappy. California sales tax rates are among the highest in the country, topping out at 9.75 percent, … Read more

How iPhone 5 sales will help City Hall

Two weeks from today, the Apple store in Denver's Cherry Creek shopping center is likely to collect enough sales tax in just a few hours to pay the entire year's salary of one of Denver's city employees.

This assertion assumes, of course, that the iPhone 5 will go on sale across Europe and the United States on September 21 and that it will sell like... well, like an iPhone (the device sells much better than hotcakes these days).

I was curious just how much of a single-day boost all those huge lines at Apple stores on iPhone release day give to local government coffers, so I made some calls yesterday morning.… Read more

Feds probe alleged hacking theft of Romney's tax returns

The U.S. Secret Service is looking into claims that someone stole presidential nominee Mitt Romney's income tax returns and is threatening to release them if he doesn't pay up.

Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie told CNET today that the agency is investigating, but had no further comment.

The claim was made in a post on the Pastebin site on Sunday that alleged that Romney's federal tax returns were taken from the offices of PriceWaterhouse Coopers in Frankin, Tenn., on August 25 by someone who snuck into the building and made copies of the document. The message … Read more

Google may face U.K. parliament over tax-avoidance strategies

Google has found a way to avoid paying boatloads in taxes. And U.K. parliament members are not too happy about it, according to a new report.

By the end of March, a Google executive could be brought before parliament members to explain how the company saves so much in taxes, despite generating massive profits each year, the U.K. newspaper The Independent is reporting, citing a discussion with a member of the parliament's Treasury Select Committee.

The Independent claims that Google paid only 6 million pounds ($9.4 million) in U.K. taxes last year, despite generating a … Read more