Facebook in tax dispute with state of Oregon

Reported by: The Associated Press
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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks in the Galileo Auditorium on Microsoft’s Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010.  ((AP Photo/Jeff Chiu))
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks in the Galileo Auditorium on Microsoft’s Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010. ((AP Photo/Jeff Chiu))
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Facebook says it will push the Oregon Legislature for a fix after confusion surrounding the company's property tax bill.

An official at the social media giant tells the Statesman Journal that the company was surprised to learn Oregon officials were classifying Facebook as a utility company.

Facebook fears the utility designation could allow Oregon to impose a steep tax bill on its new data center in Prineville. State officials said last year that the law is murky and they were still researching it.

A spokesman for Gov. John Kitzhaber says the governor is working on an administrative fix for Facebook and the company should wait for next year before going to the Legislature with a complex issue during a one-month session in February.

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Information from: Statesman Journal, http://www.statesmanjournal.com

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
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JeffryB - 1/17/2012 7:28 AM
3 Votes
@kbkazoo? Really? I think it would be exceptionally easy for facebook, or any oither corp to justify pulling out of an area for unjustifiable taxation. The jobs lost here don't mean squat. They will just be recreated where ever facebook lands that appreciates new businesses that create jobs for their citizenry.

dodgeram - 1/16/2012 3:33 PM
2 Votes
Question, What is a utility? look at what I found here "http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/utility.html" Definitions (5) 1. Business: Large firm that owns and/or operates facilities used for generation and transmission or distribution of electricity, gas, or water to general public. 2. Computing: Auxiliary program that performs a specific useful function to maintain, or augment the efficiency of, a computer system. 3. Economics: Pleasure or satisfaction (value for money) derived by a person from the consumption of a good or service or from being in a particular place, and for the maximization of which all economic actions are motivated. 4. Ethics: As described by the English philosopher-reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), what appears to "augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question." 5. Patent law: Usefulness of the item for which a patent is applied. Gee acording to my high-school dropout mind Facebook does not fall under any of these definitions.

LUVmyDUX - 1/15/2012 2:50 PM
2 Votes
This state has some serious issues and it needs change now. Unemployment is high and here is an example of why, overtax corporations and drive them away.

dodgeram - 1/14/2012 5:58 PM
2 Votes
Dear Facebook, RUN, RUN AWAY, RUN FACEBOOK RUN!!!! This state will kill you this state sucks the life out of all businesses.

kbkazoo - 1/14/2012 5:13 PM
0 Votes
so, help me out here: why should we worry about facebook paying steep taxes? if it is because they would pull out of oregon and there would be jobs lost by locals, I think facebook would have a difficult time justifying that.
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