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France Will Tax Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon In New Year (qz.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: France won't wait on the rest of the European Union to start taxing big tech. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire says the country will move ahead with a new tax on Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon starting Jan. 1, 2019. The tax is expected to raise $570 million in 2019. France and Germany had originally pushed for an EU-wide 3% tax on big tech firms' online revenues, in part to prevent companies like Apple from sheltering their profits in countries with the lowest tax rates. The deal, which required the support of all 28 EU states, appeared to crumble earlier this month, with opposition from countries including Ireland, home to the European headquarters of Google and Apple.
France and Germany attempted to salvage the deal by scaling it back to a 3% tax on ad sales from tech giants. That would effectively limit the tax to Google and Facebook, excluding companies like Airbnb and Spotify that might have been harder hit under the initial proposal. In the meantime, France is moving ahead with its own tax on Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, which are collectively known in the region as GAFA. "The tax will be introduced whatever happens on 1 January and it will be for the whole of 2019 for an amount that we estimate at [$570 million]," Le Maire said at a press conference in Paris, the Guardian reported today (Dec. 17).
France and Germany attempted to salvage the deal by scaling it back to a 3% tax on ad sales from tech giants. That would effectively limit the tax to Google and Facebook, excluding companies like Airbnb and Spotify that might have been harder hit under the initial proposal. In the meantime, France is moving ahead with its own tax on Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, which are collectively known in the region as GAFA. "The tax will be introduced whatever happens on 1 January and it will be for the whole of 2019 for an amount that we estimate at [$570 million]," Le Maire said at a press conference in Paris, the Guardian reported today (Dec. 17).
France seem to be literally broke, first carbon tax, that didn't work because people started yellow vest moment, well lets tax google and wholesale has money. Some serious desperation, Macrone and his grandma are marching to the guillotine
Google and the rest of these digital giants pay a 9.5 percent effective tax in the EU compared to 23.2 percent for traditional businesses. They can squeal all they want but a hike of 3% is not going to make me cry any rivers over Google's pain. I pay way more than a measly 9.5% of my income into the state's coffers. Counting indirect taxes, tolls and fees the state takes around half of my income in one form or another.
Yes. The people that elected the state that caused the problem is going fix it by reelecting them again and again. That's the ticket.
There...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
A tax on a corporation is a tax on its customers, not on its owners. The costs are always passed along. Not that I cry any tears for marketeers buying ads, either.
Fortunately for us in the US, bills of attainder are unconstitutional. You can't just tax someone you don't like, or because they have money. That was one of the specific things that led to the Revolutionary War (though the event that kicked it off was attempted confiscation of "assault weapons", as we'd call them today).
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
not only their web site is accessed from France, but they sell advertisements to corporations and individuals based in France