Figuring out ways to cut your tax bill is a time-honored American tradition and in Silicon Valley you'll be delighted to know that the tradition is alive and kicking.
From Matt Drange in the Bay Citizen: "The largest tech companies in the Bay Area have avoided paying federal taxes on more than $225 billion they have accumulated through foreign subsidiaries, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show."
"By sheltering their assets overseas, Silicon Valley companies such as Apple, Google, eBay and Hewlett-Packard are able to reduce their annual taxes in some cases by billions of dollars, according to a Center for Investigative Reporting and Bay Citizen analysis of the 50 largest firms’ financial statements filed in 2012...."
“What it demonstrates is that tech firms in particular have very low worldwide rates, and their demands for a more competitive U.S. tax system ring hollow,” said Edward Kleinbard, a tax law professor at the University of Southern California and former chief of staff for the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. “In fact, the U.S. tax system subsidizes them, and a more neutral tax system would require tech firms to pay substantially more taxes.”
Speaking of money, the California court system has been smacked by budget cuts and nowhere is the impact more dire than in the Inland Empire.
From the Press-Enterprise's Jim Miller: "We will have five facilities left to service 20,000 square miles and more than 2 million people,” San Bernardino County Presiding Judge Marsha Slough told the Assembly Judiciary Committee, noting the closure of courthouses in Chino and Redlands and the looming shutdown of courts in Barstow, Needles and Big Bear."
“By May 3, we will have a huge swath of our county that has no court facility,” Slough said."
"The 2011-12 state budget approved by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown last summer reduced the judicial branch’s general fund allotment by $500 million and made up the difference with various one-time moves. About $111 million in cuts are ongoing."
California's interminable recession drags on, and on, and while the economic outlook is brightening, the bottom line is that our sluggish growth rate will contine.
From the Bee's Dale Kasler: "The good news is California's economy will keep growing this year. The bad news is it will be more of the same lackluster growth the state has seen since the recession ended in 2009."
"California will experience a fourth straight year "of sluggish recovery," according to a forecast released Tuesday by the University of the Pacific."
"That translates into gradually subsiding unemployment and improvement in key metrics such as income. But there's no economic boom in sight, at least not in 2013. UOP predicted growth would improve in 2014 and 2015."
From Alejandro Lazo in the LAT: "Foreclosure starts in California took a massive tumble last month as new state laws aimed at prohibiting certain aggressive bank repossession practices went into effect."
"The real estate website ForeclosureRadar.com reported a 60.5% decline in California default notices in January from December. The number of default notices — the first formal step in the state’s foreclosure process — fell 77.7% from December 2011. A total of 4,500 such filings were logged last month, the lowest number of default notices since at least September 2006, when the website’s records begin.?"
"The website gave no reason for the sharp decrease in notices of default, but noted that the drop came in January, when a package of tough new laws that provide homeowners with some of the nation's strongest protections from bank repossession practices went into effect."
Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is coming to California to -- what else? -- raise money and he's being friended by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.
From the Chronicle's Carla Marinucci: "In a region where big names, big ideas and big money are no big deal anymore, Silicon Valley is atwitter over an event pairing high-tech royalty with political brawn - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's fundraiser Wednesday for Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey."
"The evening bash at the Palo Alto home of Zuckerberg, 28, and his wife, Priscilla Chan - where donors can give up to $3,800 to benefit Christie's 2014 re-election campaign - is a major political step for the low-key, hoodied wunderkind who founded the world's largest Internet social network."
"And it has pundits wondering whether Christie, a leading GOP contender for the White House in 2016, may be trying to get a foothold in Silicon Valley, which has been a powerhouse of Democratic fundraising."
