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Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

bbc.com

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Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#141

Post by bepotts »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #131
bepotts wrote: post #116

I know this gets said a lot, but I live for the day the world sees innovation and quality tech companies from Europe instead of taxation and regulation.

Honestly, you have to be pretty ignorant to hold this opinion.

So I keep hearing but not ever seeing. I know people on the internet love to talk Europe up as some leading tech innovator, but there's a reason why Americans worry about competition coming from either inside America or China.

Europeans should worry more about building quality companies and broadening their tax base instead of getting salty about the money saved from foreigners.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#142

Post by Daishiman »

bepotts wrote: post #116

I know this gets said a lot, but I live for the day the world sees innovation and quality tech companies from Europe instead of taxation and regulation.

So... that means that the restauranteurs, skilled tradesmen and everyone else should be bearing the burden, and not the extremely profitable tech companies?

I don't know how you arrive at that logic.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#143

Post by blibble »

sys_64738 wrote: post #93

This will start out as 2% in 2020 but probably be 10% by 2030. That's usually how these things work in the UK.

for some value of "usually"

corporation tax: 30% in 2008, 19% in 2018

zero rate band of income tax: £3000 in 1990, £11850 today (the increase is more than double that of inflation)

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#144

Post by bcheung »

Discrimination aside, isn't the UK providing the favorable tax haven to begin with (Double Irish)?

Also, how is revenue classified? If someone buys ads on Facebook do you now have to count and prorate clicks based on where the user comes from?

And now with GDPR (or whatever the equivalent is in the UK) What if the user does not accept tracking where they come from? Then there's the clause that says the business must track the minimum needed to comply with tax law even if the user does not opt in. So there goes privacy.

Seems like there are a lot of laws that contradict and negate each other. What a mess.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#145

Post by bepotts »

chongli wrote: post #138
bepotts wrote: post #116

I know this gets said a lot, but I live for the day the world sees innovation and quality tech companies from Europe instead of taxation and regulation.

There's lots of innovation and quality tech in Europe. We just don't see it because Europe has much greater diversity of language and culture than North America. This means that companies can target a niche in their country that has zero relevance to Americans. Not everything of value needs to be a billion dollar unicorn. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

English is the business language of the world. I highly doubt there's some tech epicenter near Brussels that would rival Silicon Valley (or even New York City, Seattle, or Austin) if only those companies spoke English.

And sure being a Unicorn is everything, but it sure as hell isn't nothing. I have no doubt there there is a company in Europe doing something amazing, but Europe doesn't have a culture that continues to churn these companies out and I can't help but believe that their approach to regulation and taxation is apart of the problem.

They get so giddy about regulation that it's kinda baffling. Regulation should be thought of an unnecessary evil - not some exciting project.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#146

Post by djrogers »

andy_ppp wrote: post #109

I’ll remind every person here that you are taxed on your revenue, not your profit. It’s worth thinking about because it’s not always been the case in the past that companies had more rights than individuals.

That's actually not the case - expenses related to earning your income are usually (with a few notable exceptions) deductible. Also, capital gains are a real thing, and you are taxed on realized gains - not the full amount you sold for.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#148

Post by djrogers »

mr_toad wrote: post #98
nurino wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a government tipping the playing field towards local companies.

There’s totally something wrong with favouring local businesses owners at the expense of local consumers. The benefits accrue mostly to people with incomes far in excess of the average.

Local business owners hire local employees.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#149

Post by deergomoo »

bcheung wrote: post #144

Discrimination aside, isn't the UK providing the favorable tax haven to begin with (Double Irish)? Also, how is revenue classified? If someone buys ads on Facebook do you now have to count and prorate clicks based on where the user comes from? And now with GDPR (or whatever the equivalent is in the UK) What if the user does not accept tracking where they come from? Then there's the clause that says the business must…

> Discrimination aside, isn't the UK providing the favorable tax haven to begin with (Double Irish)

The Republic of Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#150

Post by RandomInteger4 »

pastor_elm wrote: post #76
jedberg wrote: post #65

This will only hurt the people who live in the UK. Those companies will just raise their prices to cover the tax. Sure maybe the local companies could then undercut Amazon if they somehow don't have to pay the tax, but eventually they'll just raise their rates to match because why give up the profit margin if they don't have to? It doesn't matter anyway, the tax will never happen. They're just using it as a point of…

>Those companies will just raise their prices to cover the tax How exactly will Facebook raise prices in a way that it will hit the average consumer?

Facebook has a payment platform with various products.
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