Four EU Countries Seek Higher Taxes On Google and Amazon (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Reuters: France, Germany, Italy and Spain want digital multinationals like Amazon and Google to be taxed in Europe based on their revenues, rather than only profits as now, their finance ministers said in a joint letter. France is leading a push to clamp down on the taxation of such companies, but has found support from other countries also frustrated at the low tax they receive under current international rules. Currently such companies are often taxed on profits booked by subsidiaries in low-tax countries like Ireland even though the revenue originated from other EU countries. "We should no longer accept that these companies do business in Europe while paying minimal amounts of tax to our treasuries," the four ministers wrote in a letter seen by Reuters.

Comments

Re:Those profits are taxed in the US

[Anonymous Coward]

The most ironic thing is that the US taxman actually goes after american citizens that live outside the US for purposes of collecting taxes. It's the only country (with Ethiopia if I'm not mistaken) to do that. But it doesn't go after American companies that stash money outside the US and that should pay the taxes in their own damn country.

Re: EU Countries Seek Higher Taxes On

[thegarbz]

everything

Yep. It's one of the reasons why our infrastructure isn't falling apart, why we rank very high in satisfaction, health, happiness, why internet is blazingly fast and dirt cheap, why public transport can be described as excellent...

Governments aren't for profit entities funnelling cash to a couple of shareholders.

Re: EU Countries Seek Higher Taxes On

[Ambassador Kosh]

I am in Germany right now and your statement is complete and utter bullshit. You can say almost anything you want in Germany. You can't do Nazi things for historical reasons but people do talk about it without any problems at all. People can and do criticize islam along with pretty much everything else. Of course if you criticize an entire religion you should not expect many people to agree with you or continue to provide a platform for your speech.