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France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

bloomberg.com

51–60 of 304 posts

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#51
post #44

Why wont government taxation agencies have tax bounty programs? If you, as a tax professional, find a taxation loophole that allows big businesses to lower their taxes - you get a $$$ compensation and the loophole gets publicized and "officially" patched.

I don’t think knowledge of the loopholes is the issue. It’s reasonable to determine what loopholes were used after the fact. The problem is actually closing them and the political fallout involved.

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#52
post #47
post #33

This is not very helpful or informative. In the case of Google, who are they going to tax? Google Ireland? Google France? How exactly?

Money collected for services rendered through a French IP. That is, on ads shown to French viewers, on GSuite accounts paid while connected to a French IP address, etc.

The money is collected by Google Ireland. So they're going to charge Google Ireland? It's probably safe to assume they're not charging Google LLC in Delaware.

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume this is on top of VAT (the article does not say).

Companies dont pay VAT. And google's reveneus are mostly ads for companies.

Companies do pay VAT when buying ads (but it’s Google Ireland doing the sale, I think).

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TFA says: it applies to companies with global sales of "750 million euros and French sales above 25 million euros"

Someday company by any entrepreneur will also do 750M in sales, should we tax such entrepreneur who risked his everything just so that bunch of politicians are able to plunder that money and pass on to their relatives? Thing is tech companies are very efficient compared to old type of companies like Real Estate etc .. Politicians/Mafia see that money is being made but they don't know how to get cut of it. Most of the…

A higher tax rate for very large companies helps start-ups by compensating for that economy of scale you mentioned in your previous comment.

If you disagree with the concept of taxation in general just say so, don't pretend that this is somehow unfairly targeting small businesses.

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#55
post #2

Couldn't we just ban tax evasion? What makes it so hard? (honest question) A recent European study has shown that the more company win money, the less they pay in taxes (in percentage). Is it because of bad laws? Corrupt politicians? Something else?

tax evasion is illegal; tax minimization is lowering your tax burden using existing laws and is not illegal. Governments should reduce the number of unintentional loopholes but (a) it's far easier to pass new laws than amend old ones, (b) if you change a law that an existing big domestic firm or voting block is exploiting they will let you know at the polls; with a new law you can sell it as "balanced fiscal justice…

> Governments should reduce the number of unintentional loopholes

They are intentional. Source: tax lawyer friends.

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#56
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tax evasion is illegal; tax minimization is lowering your tax burden using existing laws and is not illegal. Governments should reduce the number of unintentional loopholes but (a) it's far easier to pass new laws than amend old ones, (b) if you change a law that an existing big domestic firm or voting block is exploiting they will let you know at the polls; with a new law you can sell it as "balanced fiscal justice…

> without any honest attempt at simplification, broad application or coordination with other jurisdictions. The problem with that is that the other jurisdictions have no interest in closing tax loopholes. The irish bend over backwards to let Apples unique sheme qualify as double irish (their tax office had to issue several private rulings) and they had no interest in getting rid of the double irish itself either. For…

The double Irish was gotten rid of in 2015 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/double-irish-with-a-dut...

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#57
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

much like the trolley problem and driverless cars, you can easily get lost in the weeds in a legitimate, complex theoretical question, when for a concrete problem a simple answer can easily be obtained. In fact, the theoretical question obscures or acts as cover for the concrete case. For driverless cars, you just apply the brakes. For google, do you outlaw "The double Irish with a Dutch sandwich"

It's not that a simple answer can't be obtained, it's that many different simple answers can be obtained...

sure, if you are trying to solve the fully parametric abstract equation over all possible inputs, which is precisely what I was saying to try to avoid.

In absence of a grand unified theory, tackle obvious concrete instances when they crop up.

If the different "simple" answers (which I am not sure exactly what that means) solve the problem, then I really do not care if there is some equivalence principle there; just pick one as long as it produces the concrete outcome that you want.

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#58
post #36
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But shouldn't they like pay taxes for where the customer is from? Suppose a guy from US purchases the service, shouldn't tax be paid there. Isn't that how its supposed to work? Taking only in terms of Giants.

To complicate the situation, a French citizen, living in Spain, the sole owner of a company incorporated in Ireland, buys software from an American company to run for a customer in Brazil. Which country/countries should be able to tax the revenue?

The company would pay corporation tax in Ireland. The French citizen, if resident in Spain, would probably pay taxes in Spain (generally countries tax residents).

The customer may need to pay sales tax on the purchase to Brazil, if Brazil has such a thing.

But I agree with your point - it does get quite complicated and bureaucratic.

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#59
post #2

Couldn't we just ban tax evasion? What makes it so hard? (honest question) A recent European study has shown that the more company win money, the less they pay in taxes (in percentage). Is it because of bad laws? Corrupt politicians? Something else?

Europe is losing ~globalization and we are fighting over the scraps. Which European country do you think will be overall obviously better in ten years? And not in the sense that "everything gets better", but in the sense of having a high rate of success in converting progress to prosperity. I don't know of any.

Re: France Plans 5% Digital Tax as Governments Chase Internet Giants

#60
post #2

Couldn't we just ban tax evasion? What makes it so hard? (honest question) A recent European study has shown that the more company win money, the less they pay in taxes (in percentage). Is it because of bad laws? Corrupt politicians? Something else?

Banning tax evasion is easy. Just get rid of corporate income taxes and replace it with a sales tax. It's not like corporations pay taxes anyways; their customers do as tax is built into the cost of products.
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