Jeff Reifman

Asking Microsoft to Back Up Its Attacks on My Investigative Reporting

Update: Microsoft refuses to release the amounts of its royalty tax payments to Washington State.

In December, John Burbank of the Economic Opportunity Institute wrote in The Herald that,"By running its licensing sales through a shop in Reno, Nev., it avoids royalty taxes that could be funding high-quality schools for Washington's children." Microsoft's Jeffrey Reading asked The Herald for a correction "Much of the information regarding this issue is misinformation primarily spread by a blogger [me]."

I've written an open letter to Microsoft's General Counsel and Senior Vice President for Microsoft to release its Washington State Royalty Tax payments for the years 1998 - 2010 so they can prove their case against me.

Dear Brad Smith, Did Microsoft Pay Royalty Taxes in Washington 1998 - 2010?

Last month, Smith wrote a column in The Seattle Times in which he expressed concern that falling tax revenues are hurting education: "Like many states, Washington continues to battle significant budget challenges. Unlike many states, however, our constitution declares that it's the state's paramount duty to provide for the public education of all children. Unfortunately, steady declines in public resources now threaten our ability to live up to that commitment."

Subaru Head Gasket Failure - No Problem

I took my 2006 Subaru Outback in for its 60,000 mile service right before the recent snowstorm. I then received the bad news that my head gaskets had begun to fail and I was looking at a $3,000 service/repair. Subaru's have a history of head gasket failures but not in such a newer model.

I decided to ask the folks at Carter Subaru service if any of this might be covered under my warranty - even though the car was older than 5 years. To my pleasant surprise, the folks at Carter took great care of me. They did all the necessary repairs plus a new timing belt for about $308. 

Thank you Carter Subaru Ballard! 

 

 

The Set Before - Hold on Anyway

The set just before Hold on Anyway at YoBe:

Check out video from a previous year...

Cabaret for Change - Benefit Show at the Columbia City Theatre

Cabaret for Change is only 2 weeks away! Seating is limited so get your tickets today. CfC is a show put on by my most excellent housemate/yogini Karissa.

Come to the Columbia City Theatre for a story-and-song-filled evening to raise money for Bellefonte Community College in Shillong, India. More on the college and Karissa's time there below...

The cabaret includes a smorgasbord of songs, running the gamut from Aida to Mary Poppins, sung by some of Seattle’s best talent: Jeff Church (ArtsWest’s Plaid Tidings), Molli Corcoran (Lyric Light Opera's South Pacific), Jadd Davis (5th Avenue’s A Christmas Story, Inverse Opera), Christian Duhamel (SCT’s Frog and Toad), Jessica Low (Village Theatre’s Annie Get Your Gun) and Vanessa Miller (Second Story Rep’s Spelling Bee, Wooden O's A Comedy of Errors). Local desserts, fantastic raffle prizes, including massages and a sailing trip, and a visit from an Indian nun complete this evening of entertainment, all while contributing to an excellent cause.

Cabaret for Change is Wednesday, February 8th at 8pm at the Columbia City Theater.

My housemate Karissa is putting on this fun-filled, entertaining show to benefit a school she spent time teaching at in India in 2010 in Shillong, Meghalaya in northeast India. These are not “ordinary students” by American educational standards. These are students aged 15 to 40. They are students who have either failed out or dropped out of high school. And they are all being given a rare and precious second chance at education. Thanks to the efforts of a few devoted nuns and a village training center, these students are able to learn enough English to pass the 10th-grade level of a high school equivalency test. The current center helps students reach for a better future for themselves and for their families. But it’s not enough. In 2010, 70% of high school students in the state of Meghalaya dropped out. Of the students who took the final high school exam, 50% failed. There are already many more students than the sisters can hold in their makeshift, bare classroom. They want to offer more training opportunities in basic literacy, business, and relevant vocations. Your help can make a difference.

If you are unable to attend the event but would like to make a contribution to Bellefonte Community College please send checks made out to Daughters of Mary Help of Christians to Karissa Bryant at PO Box 12629, Seattle WA 98111-4629. Or consider buying a ticket for a friend instead. Donations and tickets are tax-deductible. See you February 8th! 

To Refute Claims, Microsoft Should Disclose Its Royalty Tax Payments

Last week, after John Burbank, Executive Director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, wrote an editorial condemning the company's hypocritical record of tax dodging while advocating for more education funding, Jeffrey Reading, Microsoft's Senior PR Manager wrote The Herald to refute the claims Burbank made (Burbank based his article on my reporting):

"Mr. Burbank does not include sourcing to support his claims regarding Microsoft’s Nevada licensing, which is part of a very complicated piece of state tax law. Much of the information regarding this issue is misinformation primarily spread by a blogger, and no state official has ever provided any factual data supporting his claims."

I stand behind my research and all of my claims. If Microsoft wishes to prove that it paid Washington State Royalty Taxes during the years 1998 - 2010, it should disclose its worldwide licensing revenue and its Royalty Tax payments for this time period. It would be quite simple for the company to provide these two sets of numbers and would put the issue to rest once and for all (as I have done here). 

Read the full post

 

Model Community Bill of Rights Template for Occupy Communities

It's out: We’ve published the model Community Bill of Rights template for Occupy communities that wish to begin mobilized initiative campaigns in their region. Think of the template as a menu to pick and choose what’s important in your community. It’s meant to provide a framework and a starting point, not necessarily to be used in its entirety. The text is derived from ongoing national and global work by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) such as Ecuador adding Rights for Nature to its Constitution, Pittsburgh stripping drilling corporations of corporate constitutional “rights,” such as corporate “personhood” and Spokane’s Community Bill of Rights initiative which narrowly missed passing by 1,000 votes last month. Those efforts have joined over a hundred other municipal campaigns that have driven into law local bills of rights.

WooT!

Don't Fall for the Frame: Washington State Doesn't Have a Budget Deficit

Link

Ballard Banner Calls Attention to Microsoft's Nevada Tax Dodge

Microsoft is a huge Washington State tax dodger (about $6.1 billion dodged to date), it's just sad the banner is technically incorrect and incomplete ((photo courtesy of Geekwire):

Field Roast on Pizza at Cornuto

My "campaign" to put Field Roast as a vegetarian option on Seattle's pizza joints continues ... last night the good folks at Cornuto (same family of Via Tribunali / Caffe Vita) indulged - yum:

 

Seattle Art Museum Yoga Event Used as Corporate Email Gathering Gimmick

Yoga practice inside the Seattle Art Museum is a great idea but the RSVP process was a bit misleading. Visitors to the event site were told to RSVP ... then later they were told that there RSVP did not guarantee a space. The RSVP was actually just a way for corporate partner Flavorpill to collect names and email addresses of everyone in Seattle who thought doing Yoga at the museum seemed like a fun event.

Worse yet, when you click unsubscribe to the first Flavorpill email, the link takes you to a login page (for an account I never created). In other words, there's no easy way to get off their email list.