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YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

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Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#71

Post by eloff »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #61
AlwaysRock wrote: post #44

American taxes are so screwed up. Many typical hackernews folks may not be aware but potentially hundreds of thousands if not millions of people are realizing that they owe taxes on the unemployment income they received when they lost their job this year. Nothing like getting a stimulus check and then giving it all to the IRS plus some.

> Nothing like getting a stimulus check and then giving it all to the IRS plus some. In what situation is the income tax over 100%

The taxes on unemployment income can easily exceed the stimulus amount, because they're two different things. I don't think the stimulus checks themselves are taxed, but I'm not an American and I don't know for sure.

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#72

Post by zelon88 »

I remember when they took away everybody's YT partnerships and killed everyone's monetized accounts. So many niche content creators just gave up after that. Many of them worked for a long time to get part way to their first $100 payout from their YT partnership and then their accounts were closed. So YT basically has millions of dollars in stolen money that it keeps in escrow. So in the event you suddenly become famous they can reimburse you that $75 they strung you along for.

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#73

Post by unnouinceput »

chrisseaton wrote: post #48
tinyhouse wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they meant that Spain can now demand Youtubers to pay tax for money they made from Spanish viewers on Youtube. Etc.

Right - my point was YouTube can just not show the videos to viewers in Spain. The company isn’t based there - it can forget about it if it wants. What would Spain do about it?

Google has offices and/or servers in almost every country. Spain could simply say "your data moves through our cables, pay up".

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#74

Post by jerry1979 »

gruez wrote: post #52
AlwaysRock wrote: post #44

American taxes are so screwed up. Many typical hackernews folks may not be aware but potentially hundreds of thousands if not millions of people are realizing that they owe taxes on the unemployment income they received when they lost their job this year. Nothing like getting a stimulus check and then giving it all to the IRS plus some.

How is that screwed up? Unemployment income is still income. It works the same way in canada as well[1]. I get why it sounds stupid on the surface (ie. why is the government giving you money, then asking to give a portion back?), but it makes sense if you think about it. Otherwise unemployment disproportionately benefits high income earners because it's tax-free. [1] https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/news/2021/…

We should not expect people to devote lots of energy towards frivolous bureaucratic errands. If everyone who collected unemployment correctly identified the tax implications and budgeted appropriately then we would have a very screwed up problem on our hands: a drone-like population of box-checkers who shockingly ignore more important aspects of life.

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#75

Post by totalZero »

tinyhouse wrote: post #67
chrisseaton wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right - my point was YouTube can just not show the videos to viewers in Spain. The company isn’t based there - it can forget about it if it wants. What would Spain do about it?

Are you suggesting Youtube stop showing their videos outside the US? You're probably not aware that Youtube has far more users internationally. They will get crashed.

It would be a pretty effective deterrent against foreign governments attempting to collect tax revenue on views from within their own jurisdiction.

Not sure that anyone will do so, but I think this is what GP is saying.

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#76

Post by Isinlor »

bilbo0s wrote: post #70
yoz-y wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is abiding to the U.S. law, where Google/YouTube is incorporated a "risky move"? It's not like there is a choice. https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/101463270?hl=en

I thought that was a strange phrasing as well? Since when is YouTube more powerful than national governments? People seem to be under some confusion as to how business works. The governments tell YouTube what YouTube has to do to operate in their jurisdiction, and YouTube either does it, or leaves that jurisdiction. If Togo made the demand, you can leave. If the US or Germany make the demand, you say, "Right away sir…

Then I guess EU should do the same.

Americans on YouTube should pay taxes in EU on EU ad views or YouTube should leave EU.

But I think in practice EU is thinking more in direction of simply taxing global profits of tech giants.

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#77

Post by radiospiel »

biren34 wrote: post #65
the_svd_doctor wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, but that doesn’t answer the question at all. If I live in the EU and work for Google I don’t have to pay US income tax. I’m not arguing for/against btw. Just asking about the technical reason.

If you live in the EU and work for Google, you probably actually work for Google's EU-based subsidiary. There's no US-based company involved in the relationship. It's confusing because the company treats all the subsidiaries as one whole, while the law treats the subsidiaries as their own entities.

AFAIK this misses the point. If a EU citizen is contracted by a US company, but living in the EU they are not subject to US income tax at all, but only to their own state's - and also this might not be legal if the US corp has a EU subsidiary. (If they live in the US they are taxed by the US first and their home country second, but taxes paid in the US are being deducted from the taxes they have to pay in their home country. And, if they are contracted with a EU based subsidiary then they are taxed in the EU only, obviously.)

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#78

Post by Ajedi32 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #68
darig wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody made any money from Spanish viewers... they made money from YouTube.

You are hellbanned btw. They are making money from Spanish viewers - Spanish YouTube premium and Spanish advert impressions.

YouTube makes money from Spanish YouTube Premium subscribers and Spanish companies buying ad slots. Spanish YouTubers make money from YouTube.

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#79

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

eloff wrote: post #71
michaelcampbell wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nothing like getting a stimulus check and then giving it all to the IRS plus some. In what situation is the income tax over 100%

The taxes on unemployment income can easily exceed the stimulus amount, because they're two different things. I don't think the stimulus checks themselves are taxed, but I'm not an American and I don't know for sure.

Stimulus checks are a refundable tax credit, ie a tax refund. They cannot be taxed, but in some cases they can be seized by the IRS.

Re: YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

#80

Post by throwaway53453 »

izacus wrote: post #45
mouldysammich wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, occasionally watching videos its almost the exact same. 1. You send me a peertube -- any peertube URL 2. I load that page in my browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Android, iPhone, Desktop, anything) 3. I watch the video I'm not sure what the peertube mobile compatibility is like but newpipe supports it and i assume modern mobile browsers work.

And how much did the owner of the video earn from that link? YouTube is not popular because it's easy for YOU, it's popular because the creator can get money for a video with a few clicks while Google manages ad contracts, bidding and infrastructure to make the money making happen. PeerTube doesn't give you that.

Agreed, but I get the feeling that many people here are fervent believers that adtech doesn't work/shouldn't exist, etc... so they tend to gloss over just how important monetization is.

There is nothing with the distributive power and monetization potential like YouTube.

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