France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
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Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
#2[deleted]
Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
#3Taxing digital companies based on digital presence certainly makes sense to me, as a layperson. A company that's selling ads to a French company that wants to show those ads to French users is doing business in France, end of story.
Taxing only very large corporations - that's a little more questionable, but plenty of countries (including the US) treat small businesses preferentially, so it's not like it's unprecedented.
Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
#4Good. Next step, have EU countries come up with an estimation of the value of their citizens' private data that FB and Google gobbles up and tax them on that too.
Edit: companies -> countries
Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
#5I think the Brexit negotiations have probably shown Europe the power of sticking together, and presumably France feels that the rest of the EU has its back here.
Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
#6Interestingly, the only recent French tech company to be even remotely globally relevant (Criteo), is also affected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_France is a good list to look at. There is only one other software/internet company founded in France since 2000 in the 'Notable' list - 360Learning. About a third of the list was founded before 1900. A very different list than what you'd see in the US.
Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
#7Good. Next step, have EU countries come up with an estimation of the value of their citizens' private data that FB and Google gobbles up and tax them on that too. Edit: companies -> countries
Does that mean that EU citizens should also pay for these services? Or do you expect these companies would continue to operate in the EU with no net profit.
Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
#8I'd guess it's even more palatable for France if the US threatens. The combativeness from the US helps foreign leaders to look stronger by creating a nationalist confrontation.
Is this tax functionally different from tariff?
Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
#9> The French government has argued that such firms headquartered outside the country pay little or no tax.
Isn't that largely due to EU laws and the decisions of Ireland and a couple other countries.
Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
#10Good. Next step, have EU countries come up with an estimation of the value of their citizens' private data that FB and Google gobbles up and tax them on that too. Edit: companies -> countries
Does that mean that EU citizens should also pay for these services? Or do you expect these companies would continue to operate in the EU with no net profit.
they make money out of you, you're already paying.