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Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

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Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#71
post #66

If you are gonna have a form of corporate tax, a tax on revenue is the best way to do it. This will raise prices of goods the least and directly target the largest companies.

This is 100% wrong. Walmart buys[1] goods for 97 cents and sells them for a dollar. Google produces technology for 50 cents and sells it for a dollar. A 5% tax on revenue would make Walmart a money losing enterprise while being a minor annoyance for Google. This is why we tax profit and not revenue. Different industries have radically different cost structures.

The lower margin businesses will raise prices, and higher margin businesses will be forced to lower prices long term as people will have less money it's not a problem. Taxing profits encourages all kinds of undesirable behavior: buying expensive company cars, conferences in exotic locations, other perks because you get a huge discount (tax deduction) on them.

I would argue it's immoral because you're taxing both efficiency and honesty. There is no reason that out of two companies producing the same thing you tax the one being more prudent with their expenses more. Tax pollution, land, access to local work force or revenue. You can just raise personal income tax as well. They are all better and more just taxes than loop sided incentive wise tax on profit.

Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#72

If you are gonna have a form of corporate tax, a tax on revenue is the best way to do it. This will raise prices of goods the least and directly target the largest companies.

well many people unfortunately do not understand that taxes like this get past on to everyone. most only see the tax on their receipt. embedded taxes are the greatest tool of the tax collector

And where do you think money for corporate tax on profits come from?

Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#73
post #3

We are all in this world together. It is insane that corporations have been able to reap untold profits while hardly being taxed at all. These companies could not exist without the societies of the people who buy their products. They should pay taxes wherever they do business, even if fiat currency isn't changing hands (i.e., Facebook and Twitter free users) as specified here. Good move EU. Higher taxes on megacorps…

Corporations pay +20% tax on profits, then provide jobs to people which are then taxed 30-50%. Corporations are providing loads of value to society. How on earth is this not enough?

Honestly, if this is not enough money for the government to operate there are serious spending and accountability problems. A governments primary purpose is to protect rights of individuals. Its job is not to run the world. If we really want to help the middle class lets just let them keep more of the money they earn.

Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#74

I think the tax should be on profit based on where the users are located not on gross revenue. This looks more like a capitulation in the fight against various tax evading schemes employed by these companies. Isn't possible to just give a broader EU law that criminalises this kind of schemes?(i.e. draining the profit by various means). I'm sure that as soon as a bunch of executives along with their lawyers are put in…

Most companies have negative profit. All the revenue is offset against r&d and expansion

Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#75
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has already passed on Australia’s 10% “overseas digital goods and services tax” as a line item on G Suite. My bill is 10% higher.

Or it’s now 10% cheaper to start an Australian gsuite competitor ;-)

How so? You still have to pay the gst regardless of if you are Google or if you are in Australia

Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#76
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty clear. You are selling in the UK so the revenue would be taxed there. Post-brexit the French customer will pay customs duty. The Google ad revenue will be paid by Google based on the market. So the ad run in France generates EU revenue. Doesn't matter if the payor was an American or anyone else. If you are US citizen then you pay world wide income tax. You can deduct foreign taxes paid up to a limit. Bett…

> It's pretty clear. You are selling in the UK so the revenue would be taxed there. It's not clear at all. Your warehouse is in the states (or where ever) and the goods are never in the UK. For all cross-border shipments you have to pay customs tax. Just because somebody saw your product on a co.uk website you have to pay the UK for what exactly? And as you brought up, there are customs taxes as well as income taxes.…

What is the business purpose of using amazon.co.uk rather than Amazon US if you're warehousing in the US and shipping worldwide?

Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's pretty clear. You are selling in the UK so the revenue would be taxed there. It's not clear at all. Your warehouse is in the states (or where ever) and the goods are never in the UK. For all cross-border shipments you have to pay customs tax. Just because somebody saw your product on a co.uk website you have to pay the UK for what exactly? And as you brought up, there are customs taxes as well as income taxes.…

What is the business purpose of using amazon.co.uk rather than Amazon US if you're warehousing in the US and shipping worldwide?

I can think of a few off the top of my head.

Bouncycastle (a crypto library) is hosted in Australia because I think the US crypt laws want to ban the export (download) of military grade munitions.

Great Gatsby (the novel) is free to download if hosted in Australia. In the US, the copyright laws forbid the download of Great Gatsby mainly because of Disney. Ever wonder why Mickey Mouse isn't in public domain?

Also, if your product that you can source cheaper over in the US is only popular in England, you would of course go to England's Amazon and eBay sites to sell it. For instance, umbrellas won't sell as well in Arizona as they would in England.

Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or it’s now 10% cheaper to start an Australian gsuite competitor ;-)

How so? You still have to pay the gst regardless of if you are Google or if you are in Australia

Isn’t “overseas digital goods and services tax” for overseas companies only ? Serious question here. On the island I live, we have a tax roughly translatable as « Sea tax » which is added even on locally produced good (sounds stupid? It is...)

Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#79

I think the tax should be on profit based on where the users are located not on gross revenue. This looks more like a capitulation in the fight against various tax evading schemes employed by these companies. Isn't possible to just give a broader EU law that criminalises this kind of schemes?(i.e. draining the profit by various means). I'm sure that as soon as a bunch of executives along with their lawyers are put in…

Most companies have negative profit. All the revenue is offset against r&d and expansion

yeah...they are non-profit right? :)) Let's take Amazon for example, or Google or Facebook...how much do they invest in R&D? Last time I've checked they reported billions in profit every quarter.

Re: Tech Giants Set to Face 3% Tax on Revenue Under New EU Plan

#80

Revenue taxes on businesses that are effectively monopolies in their markets are... not smart. They will raise prices by exactly the amount of the tax and the only ones suffering are their customers who now pay 3% more for everything. I bet it would even be added as line item to every invoice “EU Revenue Tax, 3%” I’m sure everyone will love it!

But how does that work with a company like say Google? What prices are there to raise? It's more like they happened upon an incredible natural resource (the users' eyeballs connected to an unregulated digital network newly built by government funds) and are charging whatever price the market will bear. The tax is just a forced extraction of some of that margin, and I'm not sure how they can compensate for that. If an…

Advertisers in the EU markets could see a surcharge on their bill of 3% for the tax.
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