World of Warcraft is made in a basement, in Holland and paid -200 million in taxes.

[Maudib]

Okay, shitty business practice but it doesn't make me not want to play wow.

I agree... WoW makes me not want to play WoW.

[Chonar]

Even worse... Bonobo's are endangered and castrating them is cruel.

Cruel... or hilarious? Their frustrated, ceaseless and fruitless humping is actually powering the WoW servers.
It's real. It's true.

[Maudib]

Don't you guys have offshore accounts?

Of course... I've been tossing hundred dollar bills in bottles and tossing them to the outgoing tide every week. Come to think of it... that's the deposit process. How do I make a withdrawal?

[Daevied]

And the earth is flat

[Crillam]

If you think Activision/Blizzards tax evasion is bad, look up how much Amazon payed last year in the US.

Well you could just have said it... they payed 0$ in 2018 AND 1017. How can people be so damn greedy...
Anyway people on this forum don't care because it ain't blizzard.
Hating on blizzard is the "cool" thing to do. While hating on amazon isn't.

[Not A Cat]

And we also pay more in taxes than many of the wealthiest people/corporations in the country. This, while unfortunate, is nothing new.

The tax code is messed up, but I don't see how that falls on the devs. Like said earlier, this news doesn't make me want to quit WoW. WoW's current state makes me want to quit WoW.

[Socialhealer]

As a non american and non dutch person i could not give a shit about how much taxes they pay

I'm sure there's some big companies in denmark hiding their accounts offshore and not paying a penny in taxes, but you're paying for their tax rebates, do you like paying multi million/billion dollar companies taxes because they don't want to?

[Zendhal The Black]

This screeching baboon need to find better thumbnail for his hate... I mean content

The whiteboard is getting old

[Holdodlig]

I'm pretty sure Ion is the cause of Activision / Blizzard's fiscal optimization !

On a more serious note, this kind of shit sucks but those things have nothing to do with the people who actually build the game (which are to congratulate / blame if the game is good / bad). Those are made by people who probably don't know the difference between a PS4 and a XBOX controller.

[Nnyco]

Another video with zero proof or effort from babyface.

[Didly]

This should not be news to anyone.

ALL companies of this size are routing finances offshore to save money on taxes. It's the same idea behind registering your small to medium sized business in Delaware.

This is not a conspiracy, it's just good business. Is it ethically questionable? Most definitely. As a small business owner I hired a lawyer when setting my business up originally that did the same thing for me, so now my business that operates out of the Southeast is technically incorporated in the Northeast.

Blizzard appears to have done the exact same thing- incorporating their business in Delaware. (SRC: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/d...705_1s3asr.htm)

[zlygork]

This man baby's entire channel is built upon blizzard related outrage. If anyone truly feels emotions of bitternes and hatred as strong as he pretends to have, they need to re-evaluate their life choices. With that said, he is neither a source I would trust to give me unbiased information, not someone whose videos I will touch play for anymore... Hate encourage fake outrage videos.

Also, not that I condone it but if you expect ANY big company to not do stuff like that, you live in a dellusional little bubble.

[Briselody]

Looks like they're making smart business decisions.

What are you hoping to accomplish? Complain to your government if you want tax laws changed. Posting a video I'm not going to bother watching on a computer gaming forum isn't going to do anything.

[EbaumsTipster]

WTF I'm Communist now?????

The amount of "woke gamers" about basic business practices that now exist solely because of bad videogames they don't like infuriates me.

[Lochton]

I'll start with this.



So effectively, AB a multi-billion dollar company operates out of a basement in Holland with 0 employees while the management is based in Bermuda. Holland says they have to pay their taxes in the US and the US says they have to pay their taxes in Holland.

Which means since 2009 Blizzard has been in limbo paying taxes to the shadow realm. All this leads to tax bill of -200 million dollars. 5000 employees have produced exactly 0 new IPs in ten years and yet some of you cowards rise to defend them.

Are you getting paid to shill for Blizzard? If not you should consider an alternate form of employment.

BWahahaha.... And you first realize this now?

Shall we bring up taxes for other governments hardly paid in other countries? Coca Cola? Pepsi? Apple?

Nothing is fucking new, once a company reaches a certain size, they'll pull strings from as much as they can and keep coin hidden...

ActivisionBlizzard has NOTHING on tax debt compared to some other countries...

[Hyrja]

This is not news worthy.
Alot of big companies do it because its allowed by law, they would be stupid not too.

[daytonbrown]

Every single person in this thread, if they're smart, are doing everything they possibly can to minimize their taxes. Companies do the same thing, what's the difference?

If it's legal, don't attack the company, attack the tax laws.

[roboscorcher]

I'll start with this.



So effectively, AB a multi-billion dollar company operates out of a basement in Holland with 0 employees while the management is based in Bermuda. Holland says they have to pay their taxes in the US and the US says they have to pay their taxes in Holland.

Which means since 2009 Blizzard has been in limbo paying taxes to the shadow realm. All this leads to tax bill of -200 million dollars. 5000 employees have produced exactly 0 new IPs in ten years and yet some of you cowards rise to defend them.

Are you getting paid to shill for Blizzard? If not you should consider an alternate form of employment.

This is not really the company's fault. It's the fault of politicians for letting these loopholes exist for decades. As a business, cashflow comes first. It's up to governments to police them, and the US has done an awful job of that so far. One party even pretends like these loopholes are a good thing.

[MoanaLisa]

Closing as non-constructive and not likely to ever get to discussing the game.

If Blizzard has broken any laws, financial, tax or otherwise I don't see it here.