12/10/2023 0 Comments Apple store san francisco taxAlready, some in city government are trying to pull back from the scattershot tax method. The recent proposals could also become bargaining chips to get more tech companies to the table, says Thad Kousser, a professor of political science at the UC San Diego. Other companies in the IPO pipeline declined to comment. “Having a sustained resource is important,” he says. Vikrum Aiyer, Postmates’ vice president for public policy, says the company supports Mar’s goal of funding programs that reduce inequality, but is evaluating whether the IPO tax is the right vehicle to do so. That includes the delivery company Postmates, which is gearing up for its IPO. Mar says meetings with tech companies about potential uses for the proceeds of the IPO tax have been productive. Uber and Lyft have publicly backed the ride-share measure, which would add a 1.5 to 3.25 percent surcharge to each ride. There are signs that the current round of proposed taxes could ultimately be less explosive. The city plans to allow companies to pay the tax voluntarily, so Jack and Marc can both have their way. In the meantime, San Francisco can’t touch the revenue. The homeless tax is sitting in limbo over a dispute about the two-thirds requirement. Or the current battle in the California legislature over the classification of drivers for Uber, Lyft, and Postmates. Take Airbnb’s 2015 fight against restrictions on short-term rentals in San Francisco. When tech companies weigh in on public policy, he says, it tends to be over more existential issues such as proposals that strike at a company’s business model. That was unusual, McDaniel says, in a city where tech has little tradition of getting deeply involved in tax policies. That was most evident in the showdown between Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, a Prop C supporter, and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey (mostly taking place on, of all places, Twitter). There is some precedent for all this in Prop C. “A lot of these problems have been exacerbated by the tech boom, from affordability and gentrification to homelessness and gridlock on our streets.” The proposals, which have been made by members of the city’s Board of Supervisors, come on the heels of a citizen-led initiative last year, Prop C, that increased a tax on some businesses to fund city homeless programs. ![]() Each would fund programs intended to alleviate social ills seen as inflamed by the growth of big business. Three tech-focused tax proposals have emerged this year: a per-ride levy on Uber and Lyft rides a so-called IPO tax to increase the rate on stock-based compensation and a tax on companies based on the ratio of their CEOs’ pay to ordinary employees. As the Twitter tax break, which expired in May, fades into memory, elected officials have adopted a boomtime mantra: Pay your share. (Bring cash, nouveau riche!) The resulting local techlash has made the industry a shiny political target. If the real estate agents are to be believed, the rest of us will soon drown in the melt of ice swans discarded after multimillion-dollar condo showings. This year, that silicon tide is cresting with a parade of IPOs that will mint riches for employees at the likes of Uber, Lyft, Slack, and, potentially, Airbnb. It’s gotten dystopian out there-even the techies themselves are saying it. The city’s recent surge in wealth is legendary, and so too is its growing chasm between rich and poor.
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