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Italy Approves 'Google Tax' On Internet Companies
recoiledsnake sends this news from Bloomberg:
"Italy's Parliament today passed a new measure on web advertising, the so-called 'Google tax,' which will require Italian companies to purchase their Internet ads from locally registered companies, instead of from units based in havens such as Ireland, Luxembourg and Bermuda. Google, for example, says that it sells nearly all its advertising in Europe from an Irish unit, leaving little taxable profits in the countries where its customers are based. That unit in turn pays royalties to a second Irish subsidiary, which says its headquarters are in Bermuda. Google last year moved nearly $12 billion to the Bermuda unit, the majority of its worldwide income, cutting more than $2 billion off its global income tax bill. Google's Italian unit last year reported total income taxes of just 1.8 million euros, corporate filings show."
Sounds to me like closing a loophole more than instituting a new tax. I realize that is a matter of interpretation, but the idea that google, apple, etc are "really" in Bermuda etc. is such a hoax in the first place.
Anything that discourages internet advertising is a step in the right direction.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The equipment isn't in Bermuda or Ireland either.
It makes no sense that a Californian company is paying tax in Bermuda when it does nearly no actual business there.