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>>Here is to hoping EU politicians fix the tax system and force companies to pay a meaningful tax in the countries where they sell their products. They already
by bluecalm 10y ago
>>Here is to hoping EU politicians fix the tax system and force companies to pay a meaningful tax in the countries where they sell their products.
They already did. The tax is VAT and recent changes on electronic services had exactly the goal you mentioned in mind.
It's just that the idea of income tax for companies is silly as it requires the tax authority to verify valuations of transactions (for brands, services etc.) and that will never be doable. The fixing would be to get rid of income tax for companies and substitute it with different taxes (like VAT for example).
- JoshTriplett 10y ago> The tax is VAT and recent changes on electronic services had exactly the goal you mentioned in mind. Those changes on electronic services make similarly little sense, as they require a service to apply taxes in the jurisdiction of the consumer rather than in the jurisdiction of the business. (And such regulations disadvantage EU companies, as a non-EU company with no legal nexus in the EU has no obligation to charge such taxes.)
- wbond 10y ago> (And such regulations disadvantage EU companies, as a non-EU company with no legal nexus in the EU has no obligation to charge such taxes.) This is not true. You can read about VAT MOSS and the non union scheme for more info.
- JoshTriplett 10y agoBy definition, a company or individual has no legal obligation to care about laws outside their jurisdiction. The EU can say anything it likes about what companies "must" do, but they have no jurisdiction over non-EU companies. (Unless their own country enters into some kind of mutual enforcement agreement, or unless they ship a physical item that has to go through EU customs.)
- AnAfrican 10y agoVAT is territorial. You cannot refuse to pay VAT in a territory.
- JoshTriplett 10y agoI think you've missed the point of the comment you replied to. You have no obligation to follow the laws (taxation or otherwise) of a country/territory that has no jurisdiction over you (and no other power of enforcement, such as customs for physical products). Providing an electronic service to everyone in the world does not make you subject to the laws of every country in the world, as much as those countries might wish otherwise.