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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

#121

Post by inflatableDodo »

bluecalm wrote: post #54
99052882514569 wrote: post #3

Taxing 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 unpreceden…

It's really not that simple. They don't use any of the country infrastructure or workers. If I make a video game and sell it to a person in France does it mean I do business in France? It seems to me it should be treated the same as French person coming to my country, buying my game and going back home. We've just skipped on unnecessary traveling. Those things are subject to debate and power struggle but it's clear t…

>If I make a video game and sell it to a person in France does it mean I do business in France?

Yes.

Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US

#122

Post by colechristensen »

ElKrist wrote: post #21

The US administration is presenting the new tax as if it was specifically targeted to US companies because of their origin. Like a tariff. It is not the case at all. Yes the biggest tech giants that do not pay enough tax are mostly from the US (also other companies from other countries are affected too) But it is not because they are from the US that this new tax is created. It is simply because they don't pay enough…

An easy rebuff to the US is simple: if they are American companies, why aren't they paying American taxes on their European business activities?

Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US

#123

Post by liberte82 »

ezoe wrote: post #119

What happened to a company who has no physical presence in France refuse to pay the tax on the ground that France has no jurisdiction upon them? Ordering French ISPs to block the web service of that company thereby breaking the fundamental human right of freedom of speech and no censorship.

Blocking a website is not “breaking the fundamental human right of freedom of speech and no censorship”, at least not in France.

Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US

#124

Post by buboard »

99052882514569 wrote: post #37
pkaye wrote: post #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.

Let's say it is. Why would that change anything? France's government isn't trying to target or punish anyone (whether Ireland or Google), it just wants to stop the corporate tax avoidance it sees as unfair.

What you call avoidance is the essence of EU. Undoing that would bring us back to pre-EEC situation

Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US

#125

Post by Someone1234 »

ezoe wrote: post #119

What happened to a company who has no physical presence in France refuse to pay the tax on the ground that France has no jurisdiction upon them? Ordering French ISPs to block the web service of that company thereby breaking the fundamental human right of freedom of speech and no censorship.

If they have French customers, the French government has jurisdiction.

If they don't have French customers, the French government blocking them would have no impact.

Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US

#127

Post by baud147258 »

pbalau wrote: post #110

Who is this going to affect? The business: 1) between Facebook/Google and advertisers based in France? 2) between Facebook/Google and any advertiser as long as the ads are shown to people in France? 3) between Facebook/Google and any advertiser as long as the ads are shown to French people? If it is the first, then I don't really see a problem. FB and co can either stop doing business directly with French advertisers…

> Get the list with all ads shown by FB over a month along with who they showed the ad to so the gov can check if those people where in France or not?

I think it would be closer to checking which French company bought ads from Facebook and for how much and taxing this.

Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US

#128

Post by pmohun »

ezoe wrote: post #119

What happened to a company who has no physical presence in France refuse to pay the tax on the ground that France has no jurisdiction upon them? Ordering French ISPs to block the web service of that company thereby breaking the fundamental human right of freedom of speech and no censorship.

I'm not sure the assumption that other countries give a damn about what the U.S. Constitution says is correct.

Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US

#129

Post by 50656E6973 »

ripdog wrote: post #28
bko wrote: post #15

I never understood the logic behind taxing large internet businesses. The idea behind taxes is that you use some public resource and you pay for that service. You own a home in a neighborhood, you pay property tax that funds the schools. You drive a car, you pay gasoline tax that funds the streets. You hire workers locally, you pay the tax to pay back all the contributions public institutions made to adding the skill…

Those large tech companies can make money in France because the french government provides all that is necessary for a free, fair and functioning market. How could Google make money in France if there was no french police force, education system, market regulation, court system, contract enforcement? All money made on the white market in any country is facilitated by that government, and taxes are paid on all profits…

>How could Google make money in France if there was no french police force, education system, market regulation, court system, contract enforcement?

By showing ads.

Ads only need eyeballs to make money.

Re: France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US

#130

Post by peteretep »

baud147258 wrote: post #120
peteretep wrote: post #5

I 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.

No, EU isn't backing this, because in that case it would have been an EU-wide tax, not in just in one country. The EU tried to establish an equivalent tax, but there was pushback from countries that are taking advantage of it (Ireland, Luxembourg) Edit: From the French newspaper Le Monde [1], it was Ireland, Sweden, Danemark and Finland which opposed the idea. And from this article [2], Germany didn't help a lot, fea…

I think this will play out differently, and doubly so if American sabre rattling continues
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