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Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

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Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#91

Post by bduerst »

rvp-x wrote: post #85
bduerst wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is increased taxation pro-market?

At least for my own country, if you buy advertising from Google, you pay 0% VAT because it's not a local purchase. With a local company there's 18% VAT. The local companies are starting the competition at a huge disadvantage. An even playing field is a healthier market, without megacorps that can run at a loss for decades to crush out any chance competition in a field.

In accordance to Article 44 of EU Council Directive 2006/112/EC, you're supposed to be reporting your spend with Google and paying VAT taxes on it.

You don't have to pay it right away at the time of purchase, but you do have to pay it. You might want to talk to your company's accountant...

Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#92

Post by miskin »

bduerst wrote: post #91
rvp-x wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least for my own country, if you buy advertising from Google, you pay 0% VAT because it's not a local purchase. With a local company there's 18% VAT. The local companies are starting the competition at a huge disadvantage. An even playing field is a healthier market, without megacorps that can run at a loss for decades to crush out any chance competition in a field.

In accordance to Article 44 of EU Council Directive 2006/112/EC, you're supposed to be reporting your spend with Google and paying VAT taxes on it. You don't have to pay it right away at the time of purchase, but you do have to pay it. You might want to talk to your company's accountant...

If you do business with VAT registered company from different country, you do not pay VAT upfront with purchase, but you report it at the end of quarter (monthly if you are big enough). You will actually never pay this VAT if you are VAT registered company as you will report it and ask for refund at the same time. On the the other hand, if you are doing business with local company you pay VAT with payment for service or goods and ask for refund at the end of quarter. Long term cost is same, but it blocks your resources (paid VAT) and it may be difference for some companies.

Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#93

Post by CaptainZapp »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #27
ShorsHammer wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb is highlighting a zoning problem that governments are unwilling to admit to themselves. Sublets and short term rentals existed long before before and most cities on Earth didn't care, but once a frictionless platform came along it suddenly was a problem. My landlord kicked us out to run an airbnb fulltime after seeing how much a neighbour was earning. (Around New Years /Christmas you could easily bring in 2 mo…

You comment reminds me of what a friend said about Venice. Venice is as real a city as the Magic Kingdom. Because tourists ate it completely. There have always been tourists going to Venice, but since the jet age so many that all the old families that used to make it their home have been kicked out. Probably the future is everyone not wealthy gets kicked out and put on the equivalent of an Indian Reservation. Enforce…

I think massive cruise ships are more of a problem for Venice than cheap flights.

Venice airport is comparatively small with 11'000'000 flights a year.

Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#94

Post by bartimus »

Carpetsmoker wrote: post #88
bartimus wrote: post #57

We can do this in Europe because we are great at killing innovation through our taxes and regulations. This way we can safely tax innovative tech giants without hurting our own tech giants. Because they don't exist here. We don't like that thing that you do. So we'll just apply taxes and let you continue doing the thing we don't like you to do.

You say that like "tech giants" are a good thing. The biggest difference doesn't seem to be taxes, but a predatory attitude focused only on their own growth and "to hell with everyone else". "Tech giants" of the past and present like IBM, AT&T, Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, Uber, and Amazon are all widely disliked and criticized. Aside from that there are plenty of European tech companies (ASML, Logitech, Skype, Spoti…

> You say that like "tech giants" are a good thing.

What you see is that - if the Czech Republic would have their own tech giants - they wouldn't propose such an aggressive taxation towards it. It's why Germany was against such taxes because they fear repercussions towards their own industry.

> But a predatory attitude focused only on their own growth and "to hell with everyone else".

Such a predatory attitude also gets punished through free market forces. A company like Microsoft got severely punished for their predatory behaviors.

One of my favorite tech giants is 'Robert Bosch Stiftung' from Germany.

> Aside from that there are plenty of European tech companies (ASML, Logitech, Skype, Spotify, just to name a few)

ASML is the meager remnant of the once almighty Philips. Logitech is Swiss. Switzerland indeed does a better job providing a healthy climate for innovation. Skype is owned by Microsoft. Spotify is indeed a lovely company (worth protecting for sure).

> Europe lacks such a powerful "hub".

This is indeed a problem. San Francisco provides an excellent climate that attracts innovation. An important factor was perhaps that there was so much room to grow. The right city at the right time. In Europe most of the land is already accounted or planned for something.

China got to grow so quickly exactly because the government decided to embrace free market forces.

> This is why the UK probably has more EU immigrants than many other countries

Many wealthy people migrated from France to the UK when Hollande proposed his tax plans.

https://www.businessinsider.com/small-business-owners-explai...

Now we see France giving all kinds of tax breaks to lure UK companies to France after Brexit.

Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#95

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

tmefq wrote: post #80
megous wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rise in prices for new rentals is real. ~70-100% over last few years. How much of that is caused by AirBnB is debatable.

Not sure about the situation in Czechia but in Spain (where I live) I'd say most of it is caused by the fact that jobs have moved to the big cities to the point where there's nothing left to do in small/mid-sized towns. Personally I blame shopping centres (which have destroyed most small stores in every town they've settled in, and don't require as many active people) and cheap production in Eastern Europe and China…

Out of curiosity, what does Eastern Europe produce that Spain needs or buys?

Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#96

Post by finchisko »

bartimus wrote: post #94
Carpetsmoker wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that like "tech giants" are a good thing. The biggest difference doesn't seem to be taxes, but a predatory attitude focused only on their own growth and "to hell with everyone else". "Tech giants" of the past and present like IBM, AT&T, Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, Uber, and Amazon are all widely disliked and criticized. Aside from that there are plenty of European tech companies (ASML, Logitech, Skype, Spoti…

> You say that like "tech giants" are a good thing. What you see is that - if the Czech Republic would have their own tech giants - they wouldn't propose such an aggressive taxation towards it. It's why Germany was against such taxes because they fear repercussions towards their own industry. > But a predatory attitude focused only on their own growth and "to hell with everyone else". Such a predatory attitude also g…

>if the Czech Republic would have their own tech giants - they wouldn't propose such an aggressive taxation towards it.

Wait, if the company was in Czech rep. it would pay taxes there already. Or what am I missing?

Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#97

Post by blub »

bartimus wrote: post #94
Carpetsmoker wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that like "tech giants" are a good thing. The biggest difference doesn't seem to be taxes, but a predatory attitude focused only on their own growth and "to hell with everyone else". "Tech giants" of the past and present like IBM, AT&T, Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, Uber, and Amazon are all widely disliked and criticized. Aside from that there are plenty of European tech companies (ASML, Logitech, Skype, Spoti…

> You say that like "tech giants" are a good thing. What you see is that - if the Czech Republic would have their own tech giants - they wouldn't propose such an aggressive taxation towards it. It's why Germany was against such taxes because they fear repercussions towards their own industry. > But a predatory attitude focused only on their own growth and "to hell with everyone else". Such a predatory attitude also g…

Well if Czechia had their tech giants they would lobby (read buy influence) against this as if their life depended on it. It's good that bigcorps don't have their claws in every country on the planet.

Your "free market forces" argument comes straight from the 70s. How much more abuse are you willing to tolerate before it becomes blindingly obvious that market forces don't punish companies except if they don't make money.

Microsoft was punished by the government, i.e. the law, not the market. And how did the market forces punish Facebook for the colossal fuck-ups? Because even after expecting a 5 Billion fine their stock was up.

Saying that market forces punish predatory attitudes is beyond the pale. It's gaslighting and ignorance rolled into one.

Skirting laws (Uber, Airbnb, Amazon), giving worker protections a runaround (any gig economy company) or destroying privacy (Google, Facebook, MS, many more) is not the kind of innovation this planet needs.

Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#98

Post by blub »

Shivetya wrote: post #50
protomyth wrote: post #20

Intermediary platforms such as Airbnb and Uber exacerbate cities’ housing problems and weaken worker protections. Its interesting that this line has no support and just treated as fact for this article. Is there a source to explain the reasoning?

the uber one is certainly a lie. the simple fact is these companies have money, can very easily be portrayed as the bogeyman, bonus points because they are not companies to country that will tax them, and simply because most of the populace won't care because its not them. talk to any of the uber drivers where I work, so take it as you will, and many will tell you of passengers who use uber/lyft because the drivers a…

"drivers are friendlier, arrive on time, and tend to drive nicer cars", but they also have zero worker protections and dance to whatever tune Uber is playing.

I'm not selfish enough to only think about my comfort, I want those drivers to be able to have some damn job security, because we're in the 21st century, not the dark ages.

Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#99

Post by bartimus »

finchisko wrote: post #96
bartimus wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You say that like "tech giants" are a good thing. What you see is that - if the Czech Republic would have their own tech giants - they wouldn't propose such an aggressive taxation towards it. It's why Germany was against such taxes because they fear repercussions towards their own industry. > But a predatory attitude focused only on their own growth and "to hell with everyone else". Such a predatory attitude also g…

>if the Czech Republic would have their own tech giants - they wouldn't propose such an aggressive taxation towards it. Wait, if the company was in Czech rep. it would pay taxes there already. Or what am I missing?

The Czech tech giant would be operating globally. The Czech government would be less inclined to tax foreign tech companies if there exists a risk of foreign countries introducing tax repercussions for your own tech giants.

Then if you apply specific "personal data taxes" they would come on top of the regular taxes already payed by your local tech giant. If such a tech giant would exist.

The way this should be balanced out is by stimulating counter-innovation coming from Europe. Not by taxing innovation coming from foreign countries.

Re: Czech Republic proposes the highest digital tax rate in Europe

#100

Post by Carpetsmoker »

bartimus wrote: post #94
Carpetsmoker wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that like "tech giants" are a good thing. The biggest difference doesn't seem to be taxes, but a predatory attitude focused only on their own growth and "to hell with everyone else". "Tech giants" of the past and present like IBM, AT&T, Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, Uber, and Amazon are all widely disliked and criticized. Aside from that there are plenty of European tech companies (ASML, Logitech, Skype, Spoti…

> You say that like "tech giants" are a good thing. What you see is that - if the Czech Republic would have their own tech giants - they wouldn't propose such an aggressive taxation towards it. It's why Germany was against such taxes because they fear repercussions towards their own industry. > But a predatory attitude focused only on their own growth and "to hell with everyone else". Such a predatory attitude also g…

Okay, but you didn't really reply to anything I said in any meaningful way. Instead you just hooked in to out-of-context fragments to insert your own points.

For example on my point about Europe's fragmentary nature due to the different languages you reply with some observations about ... France's tax rates? Okay...

This is not really how conversations work.

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