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YouTube tells foreign creators they will soon be charged American tax

rt.com

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

#81

Post by Isinlor »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #57
the_svd_doctor wrote: post #36

But why? If you’re not physically present in the US and are not a US citizen, why would you be subject to (income) tax? Or is that not a form of income tax, but something else?

I suppose a non-citizen subject to this tax would have to appeal to their own government and raise the issue diplomatically. But I doubt most nations would be in a position to change the United State's behavior in this regard. Maybe the EU has enough clout to contest this in a court of international law. But that also depends on them wanting to raise the issue in the first place.

EU is very much interested in collecting tax from tech giants.

We may simply impose tax on their global profits after some system of dividing them fairly.

Fair Taxation of the Digital Economy: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/company-tax/f...

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

#82

Post by bilbo0s »

tinyhouse wrote: post #43

That sounds like something that Youtube should take care of based on their revenue in each country. They can then decide how much to pay for creators. I'm assuming Youtube already pay taxes in all countries they have revenue in?

US government would never agree to that. It would allow foreign creators to potentially incorporate in other nations in an advantageous manner.

Charging taxes per business entity, means no one can hide from Uncle Sam, and they can tax YouTube itself as well!

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

#83

Post by mavhc »

ssijak wrote: post #53
mrweasel wrote: post #15

That seems like a potentially risky move from YouTube. Won't every other country now demand that they do the same for them? This is going to be extremely confusing for creators. I can't imagine anyone but the very largest YouTubers being able to handle getting taxed in multiple countries and figure out what exactly they need to pay at home. Actually, the large YouTubers may be better of simply demonetizing they video…

In the same TOS change Google added a point where they say that they can show their own ads on demonetised videos https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/10090902?hl=en

Well, they are hosting and streaming and re-encoding them for free

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

#84

Post by chrisseaton »

Aperocky wrote: post #64
chrisseaton wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But why? How are they able to generate the income? Through the services YouTube provides from the US. How is YouTube able to provide those services? Because the US government creates infrastructure to enable it. How is that infrastructure paid for? Taxes. Hence they tax the income.

> the government creates infrastructure to enable it. Hearty laugh. Yes, to a degree, but at the current time (and for a good long time) the US government does not even pretend to try. Tell me a significant infrastructure package since the interstates. Many relevant infrastructure are created by telecom companies, should we owe taxes to those too?

> Many relevant infrastructure are created by telecom companies, should we owe taxes to those too?

They don’t have tax raising powers so they can’t. The US does so it can.

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

#85

Post by tristanj »

This RT article is clickbait and spreading misinformation. The tax is on revenue generated from users in the US, not on all revenue. If creators provide no tax information at all, only then will YouTube tax all global revenue. And YouTube is not doing so by choice, they're a US headquartered company and forced to do this to comply with US tax law.

RT is highlighting tweets that are spreading misinformation. For example:

> I'm so confused, @YouTube and @AdSense are updating their terms so that all Non-U.S. Creators now have to pay American Taxes on all of their earnings.

No, it's on US sourced income. RT clearly knows this tweet is untrue, in the third paragraph they explain this is only on US sourced revenue, yet they still promote it.

Another one:

> It seems that even if you live outside of the US, and are not a US citizen and therefore owe the IRS no taxes

No, it's US sourced income, therefore the US government can levy taxes on it.

Another one:

> You are really giving a huge middle finger to creators who now have to pay DOUBLE TAX.

No, they are only double taxed if the country they reside in does not have a double taxation agreement with the US. More than 60 countries have a double taxation agreement with the US. I believe the majority of creators will not double taxed.

The title and contents are chosen to promote maximum outrage. Even a cursory reading of the original source https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/101463270 dispels these claims.

This article should be replaced by the original source.

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

#86

Post by sandworm101 »

tristanj wrote: post #85

This RT article is clickbait and spreading misinformation. The tax is on revenue generated from users in the US, not on all revenue. If creators provide no tax information at all, only then will YouTube tax all global revenue. And YouTube is not doing so by choice, they're a US headquartered company and forced to do this to comply with US tax law. RT is highlighting tweets that are spreading misinformation. For examp…

"we will soon be updating our Terms of Service where your earnings from YouTube will be considered royalties from a U.S. tax perspective (we’ve already made this change to the Terms of Service for U.S. creators in November). This may impact the way your earnings are taxed, and as required by U.S. law, Google will withhold taxes."

So you will have to file a tax return and get the money back just like every other income earner in the country. The real issue imho is that the bulk of youtubers probably aren't properly filing any returns in any country.

I have a young guy working for me who does game streaming on weekends. I think he earned a few thousand dollars last year. He had no idea that such income was taxable, that he would actually have to hand over part of it to the government despite it not coming from his fulltime job. I think he would prefer google withhold those dollars.

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

#87

Post by mc32 »

tristanj wrote: post #85

This RT article is clickbait and spreading misinformation. The tax is on revenue generated from users in the US, not on all revenue. If creators provide no tax information at all, only then will YouTube tax all global revenue. And YouTube is not doing so by choice, they're a US headquartered company and forced to do this to comply with US tax law. RT is highlighting tweets that are spreading misinformation. For examp…

That is a lot more reasonable. I can see other countries wanting taxes on revenue generated by their viewership as well and that would make sense too.

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

#88

Post by melomal »

yoz-y wrote: post #40
mrweasel wrote: post #15

That seems like a potentially risky move from YouTube. Won't every other country now demand that they do the same for them? This is going to be extremely confusing for creators. I can't imagine anyone but the very largest YouTubers being able to handle getting taxed in multiple countries and figure out what exactly they need to pay at home. Actually, the large YouTubers may be better of simply demonetizing they video…

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

Remote workers will be screwed then. I've worked for companies incorporated in Switzerland and I live in Poland, why on earth would that make sense to pay Swiss tax if I live and work in PL?

Also Alphabet is a Delaware incorporated company - tax haven, plus there's the good ol' tax haven of Dublin that FANGs love and Google is located in, like Facebook, Amazon, insert other multi-billion turnover company.

For anyone interested in Ireland's tax loopholes: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/explainer-google...

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

#90

Post by realmod »

totalZero wrote: post #75
tinyhouse wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

At the same time, giving up a market will give another competitor a golden oppurtunity which could come to bite them. And countries could probably somehow force Google to continue operating Youtube there by threatning other Google products.
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