Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
computing.co.uk
Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
1–10 of 91 posts
Re: Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
#2They need to make these fines "per user". It shouldn't be the case that for a company sufficiently large that a few billion in fines is simply another cost of doing business.
Re: Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
#3They need to make these fines "per user". It shouldn't be the case that for a company sufficiently large that a few billion in fines is simply another cost of doing business.
I believe the number of users affected is one of the factors considered at the time the fines are levied. The EU seems to be happy to substitute fines for taxes, so companies treating them the same way isn't too surprising. Structure your activities to avoid {fines, taxes} as much as possible, but at some level they are unavoidable.
Re: Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
#4At the end of the day, Google probably doesn't differentiate the two very much as they're both costs of doing business. I would expect Google to work in its interest to reduce these impositions (taxes, laws+fines, etc) where they can, but we shouldn't pretend the punitive value of fines is more than a cost calculation to them.
We also shouldn't pretend that the EU justification for fines is purely about citizen protection, they see this as a "tax" as well (though that is of course not their primary motivation). Otherwise, they would work harder on non-punitive approaches towards combating the ills of Google and the like. One would hope education and encouragement of alternatives and other positive-leaning approaches might be prioritized over a gavel.
Re: Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
#5At the end of the day, Google probably doesn't differentiate the two very much as they're both costs of doing business. I would expect Google to work in its interest to reduce these impositions (taxes, laws+fines, etc) where they can, but we shouldn't pretend the punitive value of fines is more than a cost calculation to them. We also shouldn't pretend that the EU justification for fines is purely about citizen prote…
Works for me. If Google is happy to avoid taxes however they can, we should be extracting as much out of them as we can in other ways, such as fines. Not sure why we should be content with them not giving a shit about anything but themselves. Companies like Google only act out of pure greed. They don't respond to "positive reinforcement" and "education". They know perfectly well how to pay more in taxes, it's the default - they go out of their way to avoid it. They pay millions, tens of millions to lawyers to make sure they do exploit whatever loopholes there are. They aren't passive, innocent actors here.
Re: Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
#6They need to make these fines "per user". It shouldn't be the case that for a company sufficiently large that a few billion in fines is simply another cost of doing business.
I believe the number of users affected is one of the factors considered at the time the fines are levied. The EU seems to be happy to substitute fines for taxes, so companies treating them the same way isn't too surprising. Structure your activities to avoid {fines, taxes} as much as possible, but at some level they are unavoidable.
>The EU seems to be happy to substitute fines for taxes,
When I think at EU fines I think At MS, Intel and Google, in all this cases this companies abused the markets. Can you provide a citation of a company getting a big fine but that did everything legally?
Re: Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
#7the EU uses fines as a way of levying tariffs without explicitly being called out for it.
Re: Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
#8At the end of the day, Google probably doesn't differentiate the two very much as they're both costs of doing business. I would expect Google to work in its interest to reduce these impositions (taxes, laws+fines, etc) where they can, but we shouldn't pretend the punitive value of fines is more than a cost calculation to them. We also shouldn't pretend that the EU justification for fines is purely about citizen prote…
Works for me. If Google is happy to avoid taxes however they can, we should be extracting as much out of them as we can in other ways, such as fines. Not sure why we should be content with them not giving a shit about anything but themselves. Companies like Google only act out of pure greed. They don't respond to "positive reinforcement" and "education". They know perfectly well how to pay more in taxes, it's the def…
What we need is to have this things move faster, if Google, FB or other company does some illegal stuff or abuses the users, reach a decision fast(in a few weeks) not in years.
Re: Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
#9Another source of income :)
Re: Google now pays more money in EU fines than it pays in taxes
#10the EU uses fines as a way of levying tariffs without explicitly being called out for it.
The EU has some rules that companies need to follow, same as any other democratic country does. Like it or not, EU regulation usually does a good job at protecting consumers from untamed companies, as happens in other places.