Or you can ask Microsoft Yammer why it doesn’t want to pay its fair share of taxes.
Leave us begin.
In 2004, the Mayor of San Francisco signed a law that closed a tax loophole.
Later on, that very same Mayor took a lot of money from the owner owner of a building with which you Microsoft Yammerers should be familiar, the Twitter Building:
That kicked off the whole tax boondoggle that Microsoft Yammer is taking advantage of now.
Oh, here it is:
“THIS COMMUNITY BENEFIT AGREEMENT 2013 MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING is made as of January 1, 2013 in the City and County of San Francisco, State of California, by and between YAMMER, A SUBSIDIARY OF MICROSOFT(“Microsoft”) and the CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, a municipal corporation (“City”) acting by and through the City Administrator”
And it goes on and on talking about all the things that Microsoft is obligated to do for non-profit organizations that just happened to have endorsed Appointed Mayor Ed Lee.
So, well meaning white people who appear to be so, so, soooooo very proud of giving monitors worth (let’s hope) at least the contractually obligated $10,000 agreed to by MS….
….my question to you is this:
WHY DON’T YOU SIMPLY PAY YOUR FUCKING TAXES INSTEAD OF DOING ALL THIS POLITICALLY-CONNECTED, PAT-YOURSELF-ON-THE-BACK RIGMAROLE?
I’ll do all the legwork if you’ll give me some basic tax and income information. So maybe some years that could end up being a lot of money. I’d say, ooh, IPO! That’s going to cost Microsoft SF a few million bucks. And then you’d cut a check for the general fund.
There’d be no Ron Conway-type exception for you.
What’s that? You can’t afford to pay the oppressive taxes and loophole closures signed into law by the San Francisco Mayors of Yesteryear?
You know, I don’t believe that, Yammer Micro$oft.
What’s that, you’d rather move to Brisbane or someplace in San Mateo County?
Well, then be my guest. (You know, most people pricing apartment rentals in town lately would welcome your departure. You think I’m joking? No, I’m srlsy.)
What’s that, you like “giving back” to the corrupt Twitterloin, ’cause you think it’s a kewl thing to do and whatnot?
Fine, do that AND pay your fair share of taxes to the General Fund, why not?
That would be groovy.
But what you’re doing now is getting involved with SFGov corruption in the most corrupt big American city west of Chicago.
And it’s free to check out for six months, if you qualify.
Check it:
“Get free delivery for six months. We’re opening our pilot to a limited number of testers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Testers receive a free6-month membership for unlimited same-day delivery.”
Now that Amazon.com is charging sales tax (or “use tax” IRL, same smell), there’s no reason that it can’t set up local warehouses and then offer same-day delivery service,right?
So you go to work in the Financh, decide you want a replacement battery for your car keys and order online. Then that evening on your way home you’ll pick it up at an Amazon Locker at 300 California. Or wherever.
2. “Select” a Locker to add it to your Address Book. Next time you add an item to your cart, click “Ship to this address” to ship it to your favorite Locker location.
3. Once your package is delivered to the Amazon Locker, you’ll receive an e-mail or text message with instructions and a unique pick-up code. Enter your pickup code and the Locker slot with your package will open. Your package will be available for pick-up for three business days after you receive your pickup code.ow Amazon Locker Works - To ship your order at an Amazon Locker:
So why not pay your share of your fucking taxes now? You know, pay them assuming the Newsom tax of 2004 is still in effect. You remember him, right? That Al Jareera correspondent and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom who signed the “job-killer” Twitter tax into law less than a decade ago? (If you need help on figuring the details, I’ll provide it no prob. And yes, before he was against the Twitter tax, he signed it into law. But then a few years later he used a certain building for his campaign HQ for free ‘n stuff. Can you guess which one, Twitter? Hint: It’s a big boxy thing in the Twitterloin!)
Or, in the alternative, why not just cut a check for $20 million (or $50 million) and send it off to San Francisco’s General Fund? Wouldn’t that be more effective than the half-assed $2,000,000 Supervisor Jane Kim slush fund that was supposed to be used to provide WiFi to all the Twitterloin by now? I think so.
What’s that, no you say? No? OK, well, instead, why not just come out and say that you don’t support the unnecessary MUNI bus Twitter Line betwixt the Twitter Building and CalTrain? At least that would save us some money, right?
San Francisco’s Twitterloin Enterprise Zone, Market Street sidewalk near 6th Street, 2013:
The California Dream was built on a system of public schools and colleges that gave every Californian access to the education needed to get ahead. Gov. Jerry Brown is pushing hard for Prop. 30 because he says “we can’t keep cutting our schools and still keep the economy strong for the next generation.”In the last four years alone, California schools have been hit with $20 billion in cuts, over 30,000 fewer teachers and class sizes that are among the largest in the country. Brown says his Prop. 30 stops the cuts, stops the steep tuition hikes, and invests in our schools and colleges to prepare the next generation for the jobs of the future. To protect schools and invest in the future, Prop. 30.Prop. 30 asks California’s wealthiest to pay a little more so that the middle class doesn’t have to bear the burden; families making below $500,000 a year will pay no additional income taxes, and the sales tax will be established at a level lower than it was last year.
The governor says that Prop. 30 protects taxpayers with tough accountability measures: all new revenues are put into a dedicated account that Sacramento politicians can’t touch, and Prop. 30 requires annual audits posted online for everyone to see. Rejection of Prop. 30 would trigger $6 billion in state spending cuts on January 1, mostly from K-12 schools, which would be authorized to cut short their school year. Additionally, there would be a 5 percent tuition hike at the California State University system, 20 percent tuition hikes at the University of California, and a reduction in funding to community colleges.
Governor Brown has said,”There are a lot of people who I am confident will vote ‘yes’ if they get the facts.” Come hear the governor up close – and bring your questions.
Location: SF Club Office Time: 11 a.m. check-in; noon program Price: $25 standard, $15 members; Premium (seating in first rows) $45 standard,$30 members
Also Know: Attendees subject to search
PURCHASE TICKETS TO THIS EVENT ONLINE HERE, OR CALL OUR BOX OFFICE AT 415-597-6705.
The SFPD requests (more or less) that you transfer your alcohol to unmarked containers, thusly:
And, oh yes, speaking of the Rec and Park, Remember to Vote No on Proposition B (November 2012), the so-called “Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond”
Also because area lawyer Philip Alan Ginsburg would consider passage of Prop B (November 2012) an endorsement of how he’s running the RPD.
That’s why.
Now, let’s hear from San Francisco Mayor Ron Conway,* after the jump. (Spoiler: He wants you to go to Chipotle’s and spend your money before you blow town.)
PS: The after party will be in the Mission District – spread the word, bring fireworks.
*Poor Sony. It appears that any television-like contraption bigger than 100 inches now gets the generic term “jumbotron.”
The dude on the left is Ghiberti and I’m pretty sure that that’s Donatello in the blue cap.
You know, when I see all the “improvements” what have come to the Mid-Market since Willie Brown stooge Ed Lee worked to undo the tax signed into law by Willie Brown stooge Gavin Newsom in 2004,* I think, wow, how much better would things be in the Mid-Market if Mark Pincus had donated $100,000 to Mayor Ed Lee (you know, instead of just $50,000) so that the City and County of San Francisco would have then “invested” $3.5 million into Zynga (you know, instead of just $1.75 million).
In closing, please remember that all social problems can only be solved through investments in real estate.
*Yep. Gavin Newsom the Tax Raiser, the Job Killer. It was a different era.
“There is a privilege to being white in this country. I’m not saying that if you’re white, you have a lot of power as an individual. But if you’re white, you might be more likely to find* a white President,** a white Senator, a white police chief. I mean I’m just saying, right?”
Have you been to college? This is exactly what it’s like.
I mean I’m just saying, right?
*No comprendo. Do not copy. Repeat transmission, Good Buddy. So if “you” aren’t white, then you’re less likely to find a white…
**Or half-white.***
***I mean, I’m just saying, right?
UPDATE, from the Comments section – Twitter, Randy Shaw, the non-profit mafia, etc:
“sorry bout that, it seems out of context, but she actually wasn’t even asked about race, but rather gender relations…she brought up the race issue all by herself, – out of context
you might even find this even more strange, actually…but that’s still not the whole thing…the whole thing is 55 minutes long and it was a meeting at one of randy Shaws hotels, the hartland…in fact, it appears there’s quite a bit of questionable stuff in there, especially about the corrupt twitterloin tax break
notice how one of Randy Shaws clients specifically says that it’s ‘unfair to put people that are just homeless into a hotel like that full of heroin addicts, meth addicts and crackheads’ and how THC staff and Jane Kim completely sidesteps the question and takes it to another context:
it goes on..I’m working on a post myself and making clips…It really looks like the entire mid market tax break is an inside job, controlled by a tiny few non profits
this could really blow up…did she not know she was being taped, with a camera right in her face?”
Well I guess this weird taxicab is a Ford, sort of.
Anyway, it has lots of windows so you won’t feel too much like cargo on your way to SFO in the back of a cargo van:
Click to expand
Learn all about the vagaries of international bidness, including the world-famous, anti-consumer 1963 Chicken Tax and how it affects us today, right here.
