Exposing Palantir: Defence Contracts, Stock-Based Compensation, and Tax Avoidance Listen now Governments hand out billions in lucrative contracts to tech corporations to build surveillance systems, track migrants, and process public health data. Yet those same companies use every legal loophole available to avoid paying tax on their profits. In this episode of In Solidarity, openDemocracy editor Aman Sethi and tech reporter Jade-Ruyu Yan sit down with Jason Ward, principal analyst at the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR), to analyze Palantir’s global tax practices. Palantir supplies technology to US immigration enforcement, the Israeli military, and the UK’s NHS. Despite reporting 55% profit margins and over $1.6 billion in net income, Palantir maintains an effective global tax rate of just 1.4% and pays zero federal income tax in the United States. Chapter Timestamps 00:00:00 - Introduction & What is Palantir? 00:03:25 - Palantir in the UK: NHS Contracts & Low Tax Bills 00:04:37 - Why Investigate Palantir's Tax Practices? 00:05:37 - Peter Thiel, JD Vance, and Silicon Valley Ideology 00:07:02 - The 1.4% Effective Tax Rate: How Palantir Dodges Taxes 00:10:47 - Explaining the Stock-Based Compensation Loophole 00:15:15 - Corporate Taxes, Democracy, and Inequality 00:18:48 - Who Works for Palantir? Inside Employee Motivations 00:20:21 - The France Exception: Why Worker Power Matters for Tax 00:23:14 - Australia’s Tax Transparency Revolution 00:26:32 - Debunking Corporate Excuses & Pushing for Reform Credits: Presented by Aman Sethi Produced by Harry Beney