Bay Area Tech Firms Accused of Doing Too Little in Exchange for Tax Breaks

Twitter didn't involve itself in job fairs for San Francisco's poor.

San Francisco's tax breaks for tech companies don't come free: the likes of Twitter, Zendesk and others are required to provide community benefits in exchange for a break on their payroll tax bills.

But for some activists, tech companies aren't doing enough, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

A total of 14 companies got a combined $1.9 million break on their taxes in 2012, the newspaper reported. Companies now have until Thursday to apply for the tax break again.

Last year, Twitter gave $75,000 to seven local nonprofits, donated 40 computers, and doled out $55,000 worth of "free tweets" to local nonprofits, the newspaper reported.

However, one thing Twitter didn't do -- and it was supposed to -- was send employees to job fairs that could help "economically-disadvantaged people" get jobs at the tech company, the newspaper reported.

Twitter says its human resources department was understaffed. Nonetheless, that irked some advocates for local jobs, the newspaper reported.

Spotify is among the firms applying for tax breaks in the coming year.
 

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