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G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

reuters.com

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Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#31

Post by CptFribble »

shaki-dora wrote: post #14
GolDDranks wrote: post #5

"The U.S. government has voiced concern in the past that the European campaign for a “digital tax” unfairly targets U.S. tech giants." How about admitting that the U.S. tech giants unfairly use their monopolistic powers because the Internet has become a winner-takes-it-all economy.

The issue isn’t so much any anti-competitive misbehavior. Even though there are some specific practices that have landed FAANG in hot waters, those aren’t really different from any other companies’ of similar size. Monopolization just happens to be the natural state of any system that has network effects and where all costs are front-loaded (I. e. write the code once, scale to billions of users at, if you squint, zer…

I think you're misunderstanding the flow of money here. No one is opposing sale of goods and services in another country. They're opposing booking the profits in a third, unrelated, low-tax country.

It's like the French vineyard sold all their wine at cost to an Irish holding firm, which then sold it at a markup around the world and booked all the profits. Except the vineyard also owns the holding company.

Neither the Montana buyer nor the French manufacturer are in Ireland, but that's where the money winds up and taxes paid.

Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#32

Post by scrps »

arcbyte wrote: post #28
nicoburns wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Companies pay taxes because they use resources and services provided in a given country (roads and other infrastructure, police protection, courts, etc.). That's one view. Another is that they pay taxes simply because they have resources that society needs. If Facebook is trading in the UK (benefitting from access to the UK market, then I think it is reasonable that they pay tax in the UK).

> they pay taxes simply because they have resources that society needs That is called theft, is not a view of any kind, and the prevention of which is literally the reason "society" was formed in the first place

So is enjoying the benefits of society without paying into it. If you don't want to pay to maintain a stable society don't cry when it comes crumbling down.

Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#33

Post by ricardobeat »

FDSGSG wrote: post #26
pennaMan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google should suffice.

Facebook has a plenty of competition in the social media space, Apple certainly isn't the only hardware manufacturer, Amazon has competition everywhere and so does Netflix. Google hardly runs the only ad network. None of these companies are taking it all.

Google + FB + Amazon will own 70%+ of digital advertising this year.

Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#34

Post by throwayEngineer »

scrps wrote: post #32
arcbyte wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they pay taxes simply because they have resources that society needs That is called theft, is not a view of any kind, and the prevention of which is literally the reason "society" was formed in the first place

So is enjoying the benefits of society without paying into it. If you don't want to pay to maintain a stable society don't cry when it comes crumbling down.

That's simple..how many times has a state caused it's own anarchy/civil war through politics or corruption?

Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#35

Post by coldtea »

piokoch wrote: post #22

"Britain and France have been among the most vocal proponents of proposals to tax big" This is kind of surprising in case of Britain. As long as I remember both Cayman islands and City of London, two of the best known tax havens, are British territories so Britain could prevent tax evasion easily. When it comes to "taxing" those pesky Facebooks and Netflix globally, I am not sure I understand justification for this.…

>* If a company located in US, like Facebook, avoids paying taxes there (strange that someone who pretends to be rather left leaning person like FB owner escapes taxes, but that's a different story) it is the US problem, not a global problem and they should sort this out somehow - for instance make FB to pay directly for services/resources provided by the state, maybe in the global economy corporate tax does not make much sense any more?*

Doesn't have to use services/resources. It can just pay a tax for the privilege of operating in the country.

Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#36

Post by FDSGSG »

johneth wrote: post #27
FDSGSG wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has a plenty of competition in the social media space, Apple certainly isn't the only hardware manufacturer, Amazon has competition everywhere and so does Netflix. Google hardly runs the only ad network. None of these companies are taking it all.

> Facebook has a plenty of competition in the social media space Please give some examples.

WeChat, QQ, Snapchat, Twitter, TikTok, Discord, VK, Telegram, Reddit and presumably many more I'm forgetting.

Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#37

Post by FDSGSG »

ricardobeat wrote: post #33
FDSGSG wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has a plenty of competition in the social media space, Apple certainly isn't the only hardware manufacturer, Amazon has competition everywhere and so does Netflix. Google hardly runs the only ad network. None of these companies are taking it all.

Google + FB + Amazon will own 70%+ of digital advertising this year.

Well, that sounds like the exact opposite of winner-takes-it-all.

Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#38

Post by johneth »

FDSGSG wrote: post #36
johneth wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facebook has a plenty of competition in the social media space Please give some examples.

WeChat, QQ, Snapchat, Twitter, TikTok, Discord, VK, Telegram, Reddit and presumably many more I'm forgetting.

In the markets of the G20*, Facebook (with Instagram and Whatsapp) dominate those apps, both in terms of users and revenue.

(except perhaps Russia)

Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#39

Post by mrighele »

arcbyte wrote: post #28
nicoburns wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Companies pay taxes because they use resources and services provided in a given country (roads and other infrastructure, police protection, courts, etc.). That's one view. Another is that they pay taxes simply because they have resources that society needs. If Facebook is trading in the UK (benefitting from access to the UK market, then I think it is reasonable that they pay tax in the UK).

> they pay taxes simply because they have resources that society needs That is called theft, is not a view of any kind, and the prevention of which is literally the reason "society" was formed in the first place

You can consider it free market: do you want access to "my" citizens ? You have to pay the price I ask (in form of taxes), or you can take your business elsewhere.

Re: G20 agrees to push ahead with digital tax

#40

Post by FDSGSG »

johneth wrote: post #38
FDSGSG wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WeChat, QQ, Snapchat, Twitter, TikTok, Discord, VK, Telegram, Reddit and presumably many more I'm forgetting.

In the markets of the G20*, Facebook (with Instagram and Whatsapp) dominate those apps, both in terms of users and revenue. (except perhaps Russia)

Clearly it's possible to compete with facebook and thrive.
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