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Ecuador Tax Agency Closes Microsoft Branch Offices

Posted by CowboyNeal on Sat Oct 06, 2007 09:09 AM
from the time-to-sniff-the-paper-trail dept.
Microsoft The Almighty Buck IT
An anonymous reader writes "The Ecuador Tax Agency (SRI) has closed Microsoft branch offices for seven days. 'We have twice requested balances, payment reports and complete tax information, but the company hasn't given it to us, so in accordance with our laws we have proceeded with the closure,' the SRI official in charge of the proceeding said. Microsoft said it was a human mistake."
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  • Ha! (Score:5, Funny)

    by milo_a_wagner (1002274) <milo@yiannopoulos.net> on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:21AM (#20879313) Homepage
    All your branches are belong to us!

      • As opposed to Soviet Korporate Amerika, where Microsoft taxes YOU!

        In such a context,

        1. couldn't running linux be considered somewhat equivalent to the Boston Tea Party? Or would that be running a pirated copy of Windows?

        2. could running a pirated copy of Windows, in the current "Corporatist" environment, be considered a political statement, and as such, be "protected speech", same as flag burning?

        • I'm all for both, especially after the still-ongoing flamewar with another Slashdotter.

          • Replying to myself since I cannot simply append to the previous post...

            Flag burning, you say... well, what a coincidence, then, that the Windows logo is a cross between a flag and a window...

        • No no... the Boston tea party would be like hijacking a truck leaving Redmond, and torching the contents.

  • First Time (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:24AM (#20879329)
    The first time it may have been a "human" mistake. Second time, I do not think so.

    I wonder if this is related to paying for votes on the ISO committee?

    • Re:First Time (Score:4, Funny)

      by Farmer Tim (530755) <roundfile.mindless@com> on Saturday October 06 2007, @11:09AM (#20880137) Journal
      The first time it may have been a "human" mistake. Second time, I do not think so.

      Maybe the first person who made the mistake was fired, and the replacement also happened to make the same mistake.

      That's not giving Microsoft the benefit of doubt, I'm thinking of how many times they make the same mistakes over and over, almost like it's company policy.
    • Microsoft: It can only be attributable... to human error.

  • Excel (Score:4, Funny)

    by MK_CSGuy (953563) on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:29AM (#20879349)
    Cue in the Excel jokes just about... now!
  • It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been attributable to human error

  • "closing" a business in an online world (Score:5, Insightful)

    by G4from128k (686170) on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:35AM (#20879393)
    I doubt this will have the impact that it would if Microsoft were a traditional bricks-and-mortar company. Does this closure prevent Ecuadorians from activating copies of Windows, or downloading updates, or buying additional Microsoft licenses online?

    At what point in time will tax authorities seek the right to seize a company's domain name and DNS entries to truly seize a business for back taxes.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mysticgoat (582871)

      This means that for at least seven days, any Ecuadoran corporation that needs Microsoft support is SOL [Sh*t Outta Luck]. That might cause some ripples in the mining industry, for instance.

      I don't see how this benefits the worldwide adoption of Vista or Office 2007. This is an entirely new avenue by which a corporate user of Microsoft products might find their operations temporarily "locally orphaned"— that is, without any local vendor support. I'm pretty sure that this event has not been received f

  • A human mistake (Score:5, Funny)

    by NJVil (154697) on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:36AM (#20879399)
    "Microsoft said it was a human mistake."

    Well, it's highly unlikely they'd admit it was a technology mistake. So, a head will roll, a chair will be thrown, and full faith in Microsoft technology will return to normal in Ecuador.
    • Microsoft said it was a human mistake.

      Yeah right... like there are any humans working at Microsoft.

      -

  • tax evasion (Score:5, Funny)

    by ClippySay (930525) on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:47AM (#20879457) Journal
    / You look like you're trying to evade \
    \ taxes. May I help you?               /
         \
          \
           \     ____
            \   / __ \
             \  O|  |O|
                ||  | |
                ||  | |
                ||    |
                 |___/

  • Celebrity Section for Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nymz (905908) on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:48AM (#20879459) Journal
    This story feels alot like "Is Britney Spears fit?" or "has Linsey Lohan left rehab too soon?" Do we really need 24/7 coverage of every detail of Microsoft? Hmm, what do you think of these stories:
    • Steve Jobs drops his iPhone again - video link
    • Linus Torvald buys a mac - is this the end of the world?
    • Bill Gates gets a fashion makeover - image slideshow
    • I think the money involved is such stories is infinitesimal compared to a corporation having to pay taxes for a branch as big as a country, even if it's a developing nation.

    • > "Bill Gates gets a fashion makeover - image slideshow"

      They already tried that in the '80s. Didn't work then ... won't work now.

      He was posing for a cover shot for newsweek. He held up something, and you could see the hole in his sweaters' armpit. So they had him take off the sweater. Then you got to see the pit stains on his shirt. They had to literally take the shirt off another Microsoft employee's back to get a "clean shot."

      "Stinkin' nerdz!"

    • Your post has just 'caused me to make a revelation about myself that is most disturbing.

      Celebrity gossup / papparazzi is one of my biggest pet-peeves. It drives me INSANE when people care about Paris Hilton being in jail or Britney shaving her head or whatever. The fact that I even know those events occurred makes me want to kill myself. I mean, really WHO THE HELL CARES AND WHY ?!?! Are people's own lives so bloody shallow that they need to constantly invade the privacy of other people that they do not eve
      • ``Are people's own lives so bloody shallow that they need to constantly invade the privacy of other people that they do not even know just to see something more interesting ?''

        Yes.

        Especially, of course, if your life consists of doing whatever your day job (or school, etc.) happens to be, and then spending the rest of your time watching tv or reading fashion/gossip/etc. magazines.

        Then there's people who invent causes. Religion. Making a better X. Microsoft must die. Etc. I say "invent", because, usually, if

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Artraze (600366)
        > Only not with pop-culture. I am interest in things like what Linus is currently
        > working on, the direction that Jobs is taking his business, whether Steve Ballmer
        > will be finally taken to an asylum to get the anger management that he needs.

        With the exception of the Ballmer comment, there's nothing wrong with being interested in those things.

        Think of it this way, is it wrong to listen to what Bush says? Or your representative? Of course not, because the decisions these people make affect your l

      • Actually, it seems to be an biological evolutionary trait. We are constantly interested in what do other members of our species around us do, whether we like it or not. The reasons is that there's better chance of survival if mistakes are learned from others. The "media" are just catering to this instinct - if people want to do something, someone will figure out how to make money from it sooner or later. Incidentally, this same instinct is why we like reading stories (and watching movies), whether fiction o

      • I am interest in things like what Linus is currently working on, the direction that Jobs is taking his business, whether Steve Ballmer will be finally taken to an asylum to get the anger management that he needs.
        Those are different. They do important stuff. That's a good enough reason to follow what they're doing.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by TheRaven64 (641858)

      Linus Torvald buys a mac - is this the end of the world?
      Actually, he didn't. Apple gave him one, to improve PowerPC support under Linux. In hindsight, possibly not a particularly good investment.

    • No special treatment. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by arthurpaliden (939626) on Saturday October 06 2007, @10:47AM (#20879973)
      What this story really shows is that this little country treats all its businesses the same. No one gets special treatment just because they are a huge US based multi-national.

  • The entire story by my beloved Slashdot editor, Cowboyneal, should be modded as flamebait.

    My god. How freaking petty to post such dribble on the front page of Slashdot as we celebrate the 10 year anniversary.

    Yeah. MS is purposefully trying to rip off freaking Ecuador. What is the implication? Rwanda is next on their "hit list?"

    How embarrassing, Cowboyneal. I shall withhold my Cowboyneal vote on the next two polls in retaliation. Next time, RTFA and then look for more sources on Google News.

    There are hundred
    • Many Latin American countries have been struggling with corruption for a long time, Ecuador included. Ecuador in particular has been severely destabilized by such corruption (8 presidents in 10 years-- everything from coups to phony impeachments). Correa vowed to change that, and he has been doing a great job of it so far.

      If Microsoft is not cooperating with tax audits, this could be due to an issue of management in their branch officies, but it could also be due to a human error. What is significant is that this happened at all. 10 years ago, it would have been unthinkable even if they weren't paying taxes at all. 20 years ago, it would have been avoided for fear of covert retribution from the US (as we saw in Guatamala, and arguably Ecuador as well).

      This is significant because it means that Correa is serious about his willingness to stand up to powerful foreign corporations. Its significance is not limited to Microsoft-- this is more significant as to how it affects things like oil exports, foreign-owned banana plantations, and the like.

      The rule of law is being asserted strongly in Ecuador which is a good thing.

    • Ecuadoran corporations that expect local support of the software they license from Microsoft may feel that this is a rather big thing. This isn't a "parking ticket" where Microsoft has to pay a fine. This is a "nobody is allowed to get in the building" show stopper.

      CIOs of corporations in other countries now need to consider a new kind of risk as they decide whether to stay with the same vendor or explore other options. Part of choosing a software vendor has always involved assessing whether that vendor w

  • Time to vote Steve Balmer and Bill Gates OFF the Board of Directors again. One day we will get lucky, MSFT will rise at LEAST 10..15% if they left. They don't contribute anything anyway.

      • If every slashdot user on here bought one share of MSFT and voted NO to get them off the board, we would have the slashdot effect with real power to hurt Microsoft. Get organized people. VOTE THEM OFF the BoD.

        Uh, no.

        Based on Friday's stock price and listed market cap [yahoo.com], Microsoft has approximately 9.375 billion shares outstanding. Slashdot UIDs are at about 1.2 million; be generous and assume that every UID is a unique user, and that there are another million ACs (personally, I think that's very generous). 2.

  • Umm, yeah Ecuador is high on the list... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LynnwoodRooster (966895) on Saturday October 06 2007, @10:28AM (#20879795) Journal
    of "we have a branch there?" offices. Considering Microsoft's revenues are about 1.8 times higher than the entire GDP of Ecuador, it probably doesn't rank really high on the list of priorities, all in all...

    • Re:Umm, yeah Ecuador is high on the list... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by janrinok (846318) on Saturday October 06 2007, @12:01PM (#20880515)
      I think your post was intended to be funny - but it should be high on the list of any company operating in any country in the world to ensure that they comply with the local laws. Making a profit higher than a nation's GDP does not absolve any company from full legal compliance. If they don't like it, they can close their offices down and stay back home, but they do not have a right to go elsewhere and behave as if the law does not apply to them. It does, and they are wrong.
      • t should be high on the list of any company operating in any country in the world to ensure that they comply with the local laws

        Well, yes, but you're talking about Microsoft here. They're trying to BE the law, I guess that's the only way to overcome the tiny problem of being a multiple times convicted monopoly.. I'm waiting for a sign that MyEthics has made it out of alpha there, but there seem to be serious interoperability issues with the rest of Microsoft..
    • So basically, you're saying that if a company is big enough they should be able to act with complete disdain towards local laws?

      I don't know what's more troubling: rampant corporate arrogance and criminal activity, or those who would be apologists for their corporate overlords (whom I, for one, do not welcome).

    • it probably doesn't rank really high on the list of priorities, all in all...

      Hmmm, let's see, now where in the map [chrisharrison.net] is Ecuador?

      No, I don't think it will rank very high on the list. However, this doesn't mean they are free to break the law. If you don't like the law, then do not open a branch in that country, it's as simple as that. Being a small country makes it a small loss not having a branch there.

  • Ecuador moving to free software (Score:5, Interesting)

    by H4x0r Jim Duggan (757476) on Saturday October 06 2007, @10:51AM (#20880003) Homepage Journal
    Don't know if it's related, but maybe Ecuador isn't too afraid of MS nowadays since they're moving to free software:

    http://rudd-o.com/archives/2006/12/13/%C2%A1success-for-free-software-in-latin-america/ [rudd-o.com]
    • There may actually be a whole political scheme behind all this. I've been told by people from Ecuador that their president is good friends with one Hugo Chavez, and wants to copy at least some of his policies. Now, Chavez's dislike of the USA is well known. Microsoft is a US company. Moreover, Microsoft is one of these companies that can be portrayed as exploiting the poor citizens of Latin America. Perhaps what we're seeing now is part of a larger anti-Microsoft scheme. Perhaps it isn't. At any rate, it wi

      • Correa is no Chavez (Score:4, Informative)

        by einhverfr (238914) <chris.travers@gmail.com> on Saturday October 06 2007, @05:48PM (#20883193) Homepage Journal
        Despite the rhetoric which the media seems to get almost completely wrong, I don't think that Rafael Correa is anything like Hugo Chavez. Correa is a rule-of-law capitalist who wants to see Ecuador develop along the lines of the United States. Of course this means that corporations must be forced to obey the laws evenly, which he has pledged to do. He has also pledged to get the Constitution rewritten to help reduce the level of corruption (restricting who can run on the basis that you must live in the district you want to represent), and a few other structural changes which are not aimed at disolving checks and balances but actually adding them. Independence from US interests and policy is a key element to his approach so he wants to close the USAF base in Manta, and has entered into an alliance of convenience with Chavez.

        My own feeling is that Correa has acted responsibly regarding the attempts to rewrite the Constitution by tackling it immediately so that the question of term limits is less likely to be addressed as a way of keeping him in power.

        CUrrently everything Correa has accomplished has been through sheer power of personality. He has been able to get previously opposing parties to back him and has, time and time again, routed opposition by building political alliances which would have seemed impossible before.

        Correa, unlike Chavez is not a part of a massive political party. In fact, he doesn't have anyone from his party in Congress. Correa wants Ecuador, not Venezuela or Brazil, to be the new center of South America. Appearances aside, I think he is actually Chavez's worst enemy.

        Correa earned his Masters in Economics in Belguim, and his PHD at the University of Illinois. He is a former university professor at USFQ (Universidad de San Francisco de Quito). He is hardly Anti-American. though he does dispise the Bush Administration (but so do I....). He is, however, unlikely to be a puppet to any other government.
        • cuador and Venezuela embracing Linux dont make their governments any less corrupt or self-serving.

          Yes, but it's annoying for MS regardless - such corrupt Governments and STILL no way to buy themselves in. That's quite an example for the OOXML ISO process, no? :-)

  • Also (Score:5, Funny)

    by jeffasselin (566598) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <ednilocamroc>> on Saturday October 06 2007, @11:40AM (#20880365) Journal
    in completely unrelated news, Microsoft announced that every copy of Windows trying to validate with WGA from Ecuador was found to be non-genuine. The affected systems have started zeroing the data on their hard drives.
  • For a minute there I thought you guys posted something about me...
    Oh, well, I guess I'll have to continue the work for my Ig Nobel nomination to make it to the /. front page.
  • *ALL* mistakes are "human mistakes."

    • OUTRAGE (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:21AM (#20879309)
      Ecuador holds dominion over the Galapagos Islands. Who made the Galapagos famous? That's right, Darwin... Which happens to be the name of Apple's OS Kernel. COINCIDENCE?
    • Basically, the argument is that Microsoft didn't cooperate with an audit, so the government doesn't know if they paid taxes or not.

      This is a very interesting though as it relates to regional politics. Rafael Correa won his election partly on the promise to clean up corruption in foreign corporate entities (in particular tax evasion and the like). It also has other ramifications for open source, business, economics, etc. in Ecuador. I will be watching this closely.

    • Re:Public Prophet and Private Profit (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:52AM (#20879485)
      Sorry but the law is the law. MS forgot to send some papers and the rules had been applied on that case. Many other ecuadorian companies were also closed for seven days, MS was the only multinational branch closed.

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