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

bbc.com

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

#191

Post by vonmoltke »

rtkwe wrote: post #157
buboard wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not sure what you mean

Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich. Companies like google can charge their profitable branches in other countries royalties to use Google software or platform moving the profits out of a higher tax country like France into Ireland where there's little to no tax. Even after they patched the Dutch part that allowed even the marginal Irish taxes to be avoided companies can still artificially lower their profit by transf…

Has any country explored options for shifting to a revenue tax to eliminate such games entirely?

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

#192

Post by ElFitz »

50656E6973 wrote: post #129
ripdog wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nope.

They need a sufficient internet infrastructure. People with access to it.

People with money to spend.

People with enough peace of mind to spend it on something else than absolute essentials.

People with enough peace of mind and free time to leisurely waste on mostly useless websites.

People to whom the physical goods of a great number of their advertisers can be delivered (infrastructure & post system).

Eyeballs alone are worthless.

The differences in CPC between an affluent white male working in tech in San Francisco and a poor black woman selling peanuts on the street in Rufisque, Senegal (which isn't even the most extreme opposite one could think of) is proof of that.

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

#193

Post by chillacy »

mac01021 wrote: post #33
buboard wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not google and FB pay the users directly?

Would I get paid per search when I use Google and per post when I use Facebook?

Bing has a rewards program, I have a few friends who use Bing just to collect something like ten bucks of Amazon gift card every month.

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

#194

Post by chillacy »

glerk wrote: post #39
buboard wrote: post #17

I just hope the US does not "retaliate" on this. EU entrepreneurs are too dependent on US businesses.

I really wish US companies would take a more forceful approach with these rogue governments. “You get off our back or we pull out of your countries”

Sounds like a great recipe to end US tech dominance and tank the market cap of global companies.

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

#195

Post by opportune »

Part of me originally wanted the US to retaliate since this theoretically threatens my paycheck, but a 3% tax on revenue generated within the country is pretty low and seems reasonable considering how ineffective taxing profits is due to loopholes.

I really don't think it's sour grapes so much as trying to address the Irish/Luxembourgish tax schemes

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

#196

Post by unilynx »

greenyoda wrote: post #133
magashna wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely ignoring the cables that carry their data.

Aren't the cables already paid for by the fees that subscribers pay to their ISPs for internet access?

ISPs generally don’t own the land cables run over/under

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

#197

Post by scarejunba »

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…

Nah, that’s overthinking it, I think. States are also like participants in a market. In exchange for access to French citizens, France charges some people some amount. It’s really no different from what Facebook charges you for running an ad on their platform. It’s decoupled from cost because it’s not about cost.

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

#198

Post by ElFitz »

friedman23 wrote: post #190
TeMPOraL wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ads don't make money from thin air; someone pays for those ads. Google accesses a market of French advertisers, and that market exists because of French government. (Also, arguably, French eyeballs are a resource belonging to France, which Google exploits.)

> Google accesses a market of French advertisers, and that market exists because of French government. Why don't you try justifying that one? Because I posit that if the French government didn't exist the market would exist anyway.

Yeah. In the same way the Somalian market did in the 2000s.

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

#199

Post by ElFitz »

ars wrote: post #147
AznHisoka wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can the eyeballs in France view ads if there was chaos outside, and gangs started to cut internet cables? How can eyeballs view ads if they didn't learn from French schools how to go to Google.com and enter search queries?

You missed the question. why is France charging tax to these particular companies? As opposed to all companies? Your answer makes no distinction between them so doesn't actually answer the question.

Because other companies are already covered by tax laws.

They try fooling around with said laws, but for them it's illegal and they better not get caught.

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

#200

Post by bitwize »

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…

The idea behind taxation is "the government needs money to function, and it alone has the authority to take it by force". Anything else is a post hoc justification.
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