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Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

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Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#221

Post by candiodari »

kbenson wrote: post #179
microcolonel wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The UK has gotten very frustrated with the slow movement of international lawmaking in this space The space of... international laws to transfer money for literally no reason to the government of the UK, even though they have no services or investments to recuperate related to the money in question? I mean, it's fair that everyone asks for a slice of the pie, but that doesn't mean it's fair that they take it.

I think the space is their market , in which they set the rules and may want to tip things one way or another to prevent starvation and entire dependence on external parties. In the general case, it's once thing to let an industry shrink because they are out-competed, it's another entirely to let them shrink to the point where recovery is extremely hard or event nearly impossible because of the loss of domain knowled…

> I think the space is their market, in which they set the rules and may want to tip things one way or another ...

So far I'm with you.

> to prevent starvation and entire dependence on external parties.

Heh. Man I remember when I used to think like this. I remember the time fondly, oddly enough. Sadly, sorry to say, you will be cured of this.

THIS is also the UK government:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Inquiry_into_Child...

or, perhaps,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_smallpox_outbreak_in_the_...

The UK KNIGHTED the person who lied in court to get the government out of paying compensation for ONE VICTIM that the UK government, after being forewarned of exactly what would happen ... to which the UK government didn't react to save a buck. Resulting in a problem that could have easily killed 1 million UK citizens, majority of them children. Needless to say, the UK government did impose incredible costs on some of it's citizens, in almost all cases with very flimsy justification (one person's wife being forcibly kidnapped, without informing the guy or their families, never to be allowed to see each other again, after the government killed her. I mean, it's almost a Disney villain plot, except without the good ending)

Sorry to say, but if you think the UK government has either your or any of it's citizens' interests at heart. Or any other government. You're sorely delusional.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#222

Post by rwmj »

blibble wrote: post #202
rwmj wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Resolution Foundation disagrees: https://twitter.com/resfoundation/status/1056969156741029889 However I agree that anyone earning over £100K won't be affected because of the peculiar system where you lose the personal allowance in steps over this threshold.

they don't disagree, your point was: > Personal allowance (zero tax band) raised to £12,500 from April (in the Budget today). This gives money to richer voters because the higher your earnings, the more tax saved. the conclusion of which is factually incorrect, and unsupported by your linked chart (which includes more than just the increase in the zero rated band)

What's the mechanism which is causing a benefit from the 1st and 2nd (the very poorest) groups in that graph, which is caused by adjusting a threshold at £50,000?

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#223

Post by hutattedonmyarm »

bepotts wrote: post #203
opaque wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remove Sweden and UK from the the European list and you have needles in a haystack. Remove California and New York from the US list and ...

California and New York are part of the United States. I know people sometimes don't understand this, but the better comparison would be "remove London from the United Kingdom". See how dumb that sounds? That's how dumb "remove California and New York from the US" is.

And Sweden and the UK are part of Europe, so what's the difference?

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#224

Post by isostatic »

dahdum wrote: post #120
isostatic wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This will only hurt the people who live in the UK. Those companies will just raise their prices to cover the tax. If amazon could charge an extra 3% without losing customers to other suppliers, why wouldn't they do that with or without the tax? Currently if amazon charge £10 and argos charge £10.20, amazon wins, if amazon charge £10.30 (to 'recover' the new tax), argos wins.

Is Argos exempt from this tax? They certainly exceed the 500m in revenue threshold. If they are, this tax seems to be more like a tariff than not.

Argos isn't an online market place.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#225

Post by [deleted] »

sys_64738 wrote: post #211
tobylane wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give any examples?

Google British VAT, which is now at 20%. The tory party consistently raises it. Also, the Rates scheme only payed by home owners became the Poll Tax levied on all which became the Council Tax levied on all households. Another tory party abomination.

[deleted]

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#226

Post by cjrp »

blibble wrote: post #176
rwmj wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal allowance (zero tax band) raised to £12,500 from April (in the Budget today). This gives money to richer voters because the higher your earnings, the more tax saved. But corporation tax takes money from rather anonymous entities, which of course affects voters too in the end but in a rather indirect way.

> This gives money to richer voters because the higher your earnings, the more tax saved. a rise of the zero rate equally effects anyone earning above the new zero rate threshold (regardless of how much they are above it [1]) a full time minimum wage employee earning ~£14,000/year gets exactly the same reduction in tax from this specific increase as an engineer on £90,000/year [1]: once you get above £100,000/year yo…

But raising the zero rate means someone earning >£50k has less of their income taxed under the higher rate (40%).

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#227

Post by tomatocracy »

candiodari wrote: post #220
vosper wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon UK pays a very large amount of VAT. Amazon collects a very large amount of VAT, no? It's the customers who are paying, not Amazon.

By that reasoning, it's the customers paying company tax, too. Hell, customers' are the ones paying Jeff Bezos' capital gains tax by that reasoning.

Corporate direct tax incidence is typically thought of as applying to some split of capital providers (shareholders and lenders) and employees. Most economists think it falls mostly, if not entirely, on capital providers.

Customers might figure in that in an even smaller way but its probably very minor.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#228

Post by ionised »

candiodari wrote: post #221
kbenson wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the space is their market , in which they set the rules and may want to tip things one way or another to prevent starvation and entire dependence on external parties. In the general case, it's once thing to let an industry shrink because they are out-competed, it's another entirely to let them shrink to the point where recovery is extremely hard or event nearly impossible because of the loss of domain knowled…

> I think the space is their market, in which they set the rules and may want to tip things one way or another ... So far I'm with you. > to prevent starvation and entire dependence on external parties. Heh. Man I remember when I used to think like this. I remember the time fondly, oddly enough. Sadly, sorry to say, you will be cured of this. THIS is also the UK government: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_I…

What does any of that crap have to do with the UK taxing these companies on sales?

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#229

Post by ionised »

module0000 wrote: post #130
nurino wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a government tipping the playing field towards local companies.

Yes there is, especially if it results in the consumer paying more for a product. That's the government taking (additional) money away from you, and handing it to a local company. If that doesn't make sense, an example could help when you want to buy a hypothetical WidgetBox. Amazon WidgetBox: $100.00 Local WidgetBox: $102.00 After the added tax on Amazon, now you have no choice but to pay $102.00 for something you c…

> Yes there is, especially if it results in the consumer paying more for a product.

I don't see why ever-decreasing prices seems to be your metric for good here.

I voluntarily pay more for certain things because it is a more ethical choice in those cases.

Re: Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

#230

Post by shady-lady »

candiodari wrote: post #221
kbenson wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the space is their market , in which they set the rules and may want to tip things one way or another to prevent starvation and entire dependence on external parties. In the general case, it's once thing to let an industry shrink because they are out-competed, it's another entirely to let them shrink to the point where recovery is extremely hard or event nearly impossible because of the loss of domain knowled…

> I think the space is their market, in which they set the rules and may want to tip things one way or another ... So far I'm with you. > to prevent starvation and entire dependence on external parties. Heh. Man I remember when I used to think like this. I remember the time fondly, oddly enough. Sadly, sorry to say, you will be cured of this. THIS is also the UK government: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_I…

> Man I remember when I used to think like this. I remember the time fondly, oddly enough. Sadly, sorry to say, you will be cured of this

Stupidity _and_ condescension? That's a combo I can't resist trying for myself. Blue ducks bark oranges.

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