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Strategically, I wonder Google/FB/etc. would do better to pay more taxes. The recent GDPR is a total disaster for them. Maybe it could have been avoided if they
by marcell 9y ago
Strategically, I wonder Google/FB/etc. would do better to pay more taxes. The recent GDPR is a total disaster for them. Maybe it could have been avoided if they paid more taxes, and were on friendlier terms with the EU.
- TAForObvReasons 9y agoIt's the same problem with any industry where the laws haven't caught up yet: acting in good faith helps when the laws start to catch up, and being too aggressive/exploitative only ensures the new laws will close the existing loopholes and yet-to-be-envisioned ones
- confounded 9y agoI'm afraid they would rather minimize their tax bill and maximize their lobbying bill.
- peoplewindow 9y agoThey can't be on friendly terms with the EU because this issue is being driven by internal EU politics and not really anything specific to tech. The poster above has it right. The EU's goal is to become a new country that eliminates the existing countries. To do that it must have either have its own tax base, or control the member states tax. It is working on both of those simultaneously, trying to control Ireland's tax policies, and also trying to treat fines on tech firms for vague anti-trust "violations" as a kind of taxation. Note that the EU Commission does not have to win in court to claim billion dollar fines, they can simply declare a fine by fiat, thus giving them a massive incentive to abuse their powers.