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I'm not from US. And it works the same for most countries, it just happens that those companies are based on the US and very visible, but if there is a EU corp
by tonfa 5y ago
I'm not from US. And it works the same for most countries, it just happens that those companies are based on the US and very visible, but if there is a EU corp that's heavily successful and all the development is done in EU why wouldn't the profit be booked in EU?
(Other countries mostly have sales, that's what sales/vat are for)
If instead of being a digital company it was a physical good company, would it be so controversial?
E.g. goods are designed/produced in Italy, shipped and sold abroad (as a start in totally independent shops). Who should book the profit? Usually that will be the manufacturer and the local foreign stores have a much smaller margin.
If now those shops are arm-length subsidiary, why should it be different?
- breakfastduck 5y agoWhy should it be different? Because you're extract money from a foreign country, utilizing their economy and giving nothing back in return for the infrastructure that's allowing you to make the money - that's why.
- tonfa 5y agoThat might be fair, but should be applied uniformly (that's a very different internet than the internet of the old days though). Would end up with every digital company having to register in country before accepting any user from that country (with maybe a facilitated process where they can self declare their per-country revenue). People already complain about the arbitrary geo-fencing, but that might indeed be inevitable.
- breakfastduck 5y agoHaving users from a country != selling user data to businesses based in that country, though.
- oblio 5y agoFor physical goods the local ratio is much, much higher. Transport, storage, sales, whatever. Digitals goods are, comparatively, just teleported wherever, with minimal local interaction.