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Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

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Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#81

Post by brunodillen »

tajen wrote: post #73
mrweasel wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I haven't done it but isn't the thing with the new VAT regulations that you can pay your taxes to one revenue service (and just register with one) and they will divide it according to your sales data I think that only works if you have limited business, but I'm not sure. I believe the problem is that we're in a country with 25% VAT, but if we want to charge our German customer only 19%, we need to do that via a Germ…

I'm not sure whether you have the best information available. VAT/GST must be paid depending on the country of the customer, through a form, and doesn't require a local company. The location of the company doesn't matter and we have an EU-wide VAT identifier. http://www.happybootstrapper.com/2014/im-us-whatll-happen-ju...

You're talking about the new VAT rules for "Digital goods & services". Any physical product or non-automated service still falls under the old regime whereby you can sell to other European countries using the VAT rate of the country you are located, but only up till a certain treshold. After that you will need a VAT number in the other countries you are selling in.

Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#82

Post by louithethrid »

Im in Germany, i can see no investment to grow a european google. Oh, yes there are great declarations of grandios plans.

But my experience in a baker-shop can tell you everything on the european attitude towards technology. "So what are you doing for a livin?" "I work as a software developer.." "Oh, so your company doesent produce anything real?"

You cant force a culture to embrace something new that it detests. This doesent mean that this culture will not buy the products, but it will never produce them on the level as californium.

Another example? People pay ridiculous amounts of money for public television in germany. And it is bad. Outright horrible. Not regarding production quality, not the acting, execution and direction. Then what is missing to create a german game of thrones? The answer: A diffrent production culture, that doesent view half a hour of screaming drama as a authentic drama, and understands that a joke on the henchmans axeblade makes drama so much more impacting. Will that change come? No. Cultures only adapt when they suffer and europe is not suffering enough.

Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#83

Post by _xzu »

harryf wrote: post #52
hueving wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Basic rules of fairness" is meaningless crap that roughly translates to, "we aren't as good so we will keep passing regulations in favor of locals until it's insane for anyone else to try." Frankly, it wouldn't be that surprising if net neutrality started getting violated in Europe by protectionism laws.

I have family in Germany who get their internet through Deutsche Telekom. When visiting I've found its faster to watch YouTube via a VPN through Switzerland than directly through Deutsche Telekom. While this doesn't prove anything it sure does feel like they already violate net neutrality when it comes to YouTube

More probably this is routing issue. Connection between Deutsche Telekom and Youtube servers is more busy than connections between DT -> Swiss server -> Youtube.

Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#84

Post by mnwg »

brunodillen wrote: post #81
tajen wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure whether you have the best information available. VAT/GST must be paid depending on the country of the customer, through a form, and doesn't require a local company. The location of the company doesn't matter and we have an EU-wide VAT identifier. http://www.happybootstrapper.com/2014/im-us-whatll-happen-ju...

You're talking about the new VAT rules for "Digital goods & services". Any physical product or non-automated service still falls under the old regime whereby you can sell to other European countries using the VAT rate of the country you are located, but only up till a certain treshold. After that you will need a VAT number in the other countries you are selling in.

Yes, but a VAT number, not a company, you don't have to create 30 subsidiary companies.

Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#85

Post by kuschku »

weddpros wrote: post #48
bootload wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why not let companies compete?" foreign company tax avoidance? "Technology giant Google last year paid $11.7 million in corp­orate tax to Australian government coffers, on revenue of $438.7m and profits of $58m." ~ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/google-admits...

"All" the research and development was done abroad, not in Australia. The products were created abroad, so you can't expect the full added value to reside in Australia...

The thing with taxes like VAT is that they are supposed to apply fully to the end product, no matter where it was made. This is made to prevent tax evasion schemes.

Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#86

Post by rogeryu »

flexie wrote: post #63
richmarr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this view is one-sided Despite having many different languages, in some ways Europe is a more homogenous market than the US. For example, an insurance business can operate freely across Europe with only one small piece of additional paperwork. I think it's actually an A4 piece of paper. In the US they'd have to be regulated separately by nearly every state.

In very few ways Europe is a homogenous market, and certainly not in the search business or e-commerce. French search in French, Germans in German, Danes in Danish, Spaniards in Spanish, Italians in Italian, Dutch in Dutch etc. Then, if your local language doesn't give you good results, you default to English. Online shopping is mostly a local thing with Amazon as the prominent exception. Even in the market for plane…

> French search in French, Germans in German, Danes in Danish, Spaniards in Spanish, Italians in Italian, Dutch in Dutch etc. Then, if your local language doesn't give you good results, you default to English.

So how is this different from the current situation with Google dominating the market? Google works in French, German, Dutch, Spanish etc! You only need one company in based one country and they can work in all languages. And if they grow big, they setup offices in different countries, for country specific or language specific searching.

Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#87

Post by kuschku »

_xzu wrote: post #83
harryf wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have family in Germany who get their internet through Deutsche Telekom. When visiting I've found its faster to watch YouTube via a VPN through Switzerland than directly through Deutsche Telekom. While this doesn't prove anything it sure does feel like they already violate net neutrality when it comes to YouTube

More probably this is routing issue. Connection between Deutsche Telekom and Youtube servers is more busy than connections between DT -> Swiss server -> Youtube.

DTAG (Deutsche Telekom AG) essentially does the exact same with YouTube that Verizon did with Netflix: They refuse to peer with them at all.

ALL traffic from DTAG users first runs to a Level3 datacenter in New York, and from there goes to other users.

While all other German ISPs have a peering node at DECIX

Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#88

Post by lumberjack »

dylanjermiah wrote: post #4
guelo wrote: post #3

If you look at what has happened in China after Google left, how they were able to quickly grow massive web companies, protectionism seems like a no-brainer for every slightly advanced country. Silicon Valley sees the huge first-mover advantages and is moving as fast as possible to move into every liberalized market. But it makes no sense for a country to allow Silicon Valley to take these industries for themselves.…

At the expense of the citizens. Why not let companies compete?

It think you'll find the "customers over workers" mentality doesn't fly so well in most European countries as it does in the US.

Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#89

Post by lumberjack »

realusername wrote: post #57
guelo wrote: post #3

If you look at what has happened in China after Google left, how they were able to quickly grow massive web companies, protectionism seems like a no-brainer for every slightly advanced country. Silicon Valley sees the huge first-mover advantages and is moving as fast as possible to move into every liberalized market. But it makes no sense for a country to allow Silicon Valley to take these industries for themselves.…

You are maybe half-joking but the only reason it has not happened yet is that the EU is actively promoting free trade. I don't know for other countries but on my case in France, people would happily block or put massive taxes on large American websites to create local equivalents, they only reason it's not done yet is because they can't with the EU. And it's not the United States either, you can't argue that keeping…

>promoting free trade

Yes but not because some EU bureaucrats have been born with some innate fetish for free trade. It's because the EU is easily influenced by deep pockets.

Re: Google’s $6B Miscalculation on the EU

#90

Post by MarcusVorenus »

biokoda wrote: post #19
dylanjermiah wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the expense of the citizens. Why not let companies compete?

Short term expense of the citizens. Nurturing local business is a long term benefit strategy. Protectionism is how every nation on the planet developed. Why are Americans driving South Korean/Japanese cars and not the other way around? Because the south koreans and the japanese imposed large tariffs on car imports and the US did not. Their car companies had free range on their own turf. Which gave them time and money…

>Protectionism is how every nation on the planet developed

You must be joking. Countries with open markets develop way faster than protectionist countries. If mercantilism is so good then why are the Asian Tigers doing so well and communist countries doing so bad?

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