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> Face it: some form of taxation was going to appear no matter what. It's inevitable. You don't just roll into a country, make billions of dollars, and expect t

> Face it: some form of taxation was going to appear no matter what. It's inevitable. You don't just roll into a country, make billions of dollars, and expect to pay no tax in perpetuity. This is basically how exports work, why should tech be different?

prepend 9y ago
Actually, this is what “free trade” is exactly. No import tariffs between most EU/US trade. Similarly to what OP said, since this tax disproportionately affects US companies doing business in EU, the US is likely to add a torrid to EU exports to the US. And the argument “You don’t just roll into a country, export billions of dollars of cars (or whatever), and expect...”
- electricEmu 9y ago
  The accounting is setup to selectively avoid paying taxes in certain countries. That's free trade. It's also shady and selective to avoid paying taxes for infrastructure the company uses. That's kind of screwed up.
  - Eridrus 9y ago
    Despite the fact that these companies are putting headquarters in Ireland, it's actually US taxes that they're seeking to minimize, so it's not really the EU's place to collect them here. With the new UA corporate tax law changes for international income I expect fewer US companies to build HQ in Ireland. Though being domiciled in Ireland also makes the Ireland Data protection Authority their primary point of contact too.
    - electricEmu 9y ago
      The intent of a company to minimize taxes has no bearing. The tax shields hurt both the United States and other EU members. The EU isn't collecting American taxes. They're fixing EU issues.
      - Eridrus 9y ago
        If we accept the Ireland situation as a legal fiction, then the EU would see no revenue here anyway, so I don't see the EU as actually being cheated out of anything. EU firms domiciling in Ireland could reasonably be interpreted as hurting other EU members, but that's not really the case here. This largely looks like an EU tariff on whatever they end up defining digital companies as, which will likely be defined in such a way to tax Google and Facebook, while avoiding taxing Spotify.

prepend 9y ago

Actually, this is what “free trade” is exactly. No import tariffs between most EU/US trade. Similarly to what OP said, since this tax disproportionately affects US companies doing business in EU, the US is likely to add a torrid to EU exports to the US. And the argument “You don’t just roll into a country, export billions of dollars of cars (or whatever), and expect...”

electricEmu 9y ago
The accounting is setup to selectively avoid paying taxes in certain countries. That's free trade. It's also shady and selective to avoid paying taxes for infrastructure the company uses. That's kind of screwed up.
- Eridrus 9y ago
  Despite the fact that these companies are putting headquarters in Ireland, it's actually US taxes that they're seeking to minimize, so it's not really the EU's place to collect them here. With the new UA corporate tax law changes for international income I expect fewer US companies to build HQ in Ireland. Though being domiciled in Ireland also makes the Ireland Data protection Authority their primary point of contact too.
  - electricEmu 9y ago
    The intent of a company to minimize taxes has no bearing. The tax shields hurt both the United States and other EU members. The EU isn't collecting American taxes. They're fixing EU issues.
    - Eridrus 9y ago
      If we accept the Ireland situation as a legal fiction, then the EU would see no revenue here anyway, so I don't see the EU as actually being cheated out of anything. EU firms domiciling in Ireland could reasonably be interpreted as hurting other EU members, but that's not really the case here. This largely looks like an EU tariff on whatever they end up defining digital companies as, which will likely be defined in such a way to tax Google and Facebook, while avoiding taxing Spotify.