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Personally, I'm in favour of taxing Internet companies Why? EDIT: I was just curious to hear more.

by sillysaurus2 13y ago

liam_boogar 13y ago
Why you saying Why should Internet companies be taxed? Or Why should taxes exist at all?
- exDM69 13y ago
  > Why you saying Why should Internet companies be taxed? Because all other companies are being taxed when offering products or services to citizens of the given country, within the legislation of that country. Certain Internet companies use questionable tax planning strategies (in Europe as well as the US) to pay a ridiculously small amount of taxes and thus gaining an unfair advantage. > Or Why should taxes exist at all? Because running a country costs money which is required to provide services such as law enforcement and a regulated banking system. These services are required by citizens and corporations alike. But going further down this argument is obviously not in the scope of this discussion thread and will not end up being a fruitful conversation. We're talking about a small-ish change to the tax system rather than a full blown anarchist revolution here.
mercurial 13y ago
Why shouldn't they pay their fair share? Normal companies who make profits get taxed. Giant companies funnel their profits through Holland and Ireland, and pay a paltry amount. Back in the days, the nobility had also exempted itself from taxes. I see no reason for this state of affairs to continue.
- davidw 13y ago
  So the solution is for .nl and .ie to close their loopholes, not create new taxes, no? They recently passed a similar tax in Italy, and the whole thing was about how the big bad American companies are making money and not investing in Italy. This, at the same time Fiat is decamping from Italy because the business climate is so shitty. So what's their creative answer to improve things? Another tax!
  - nl 13y ago
    So the solution is for .nl and .ie to close their loopholes, not create new taxes, no? .ie is the loophole, most of the time.
    - davidw 13y ago
      I think it'd be fair if companies like Google that have their corporate EU base in Ireland were taxed in the EU at Ireland's corporate tax rate, in full. It's low, but higher than what they effectively pay.
      - dmoo 13y ago
        To be fair, they do pay their tax in Ireland. It just seems that there isn't a whole lot of profit earned due to 'admin-charges' http://www.theguardian.com/business/ireland-business-blog-with-lisa-ocarroll/2011/mar/24/google-ireland-tax-reasons-bermuda http://www.theguardian.com/business/ireland-business-blog-wi... Disclaimer: I am Irish
charlysisto 13y ago
It's not about internet companies, it's about a set of multinational companies (amazon, starbuck, McDonald & many others including non-US) using a set of legal fiscal tricks to pay a ridicule amount of taxes compared to the national based ones & individuals. It's hurting competition and feeding the increasingly wide gap between wages & company income.
DanBC 13y ago
Google does a lot of business in the UK. I can buy, with real English money products from Google employees in an Enish Google office. For them to include a token step at the end of that process (invisible to the user) of having a Google employee in the Irish Google office just so they can avoid paying the English corporation tax is shady. Google quasi-legally avoids a huge amount of tax. Everyone accepts that reducing your tax burden is legitimate, but there comes a point when it is taking the piss. Paying tax is part of being a member of society. People and corporations not wanting to pay any tax should not be able to claim the benefits tha result from that tax burden. Google benefits from UK education. Google should fucking pay for it. The scary thing is that Google isn't that bad compared to other companies. The scale is huge but the techniques are run of the mill. See some of the water companies who have baffling corporate structures and who use international intra-business loans in order to avoid corporation tax, all while paying massive bonuses to staff, increasing costs to consumers, under funding maintainance, etc. it's infuriating.
doe88 13y ago
Because if you make some business in one country it's fair to proportionally contribute to that country. And hiding behind schemes in order to minimize it should be prohibited.

Personally, I'm in favour of taxing Internet companies Why? EDIT: I was just curious to hear more.

liam_boogar 13y ago

Why you saying Why should Internet companies be taxed? Or Why should taxes exist at all?

exDM69 13y ago
> Why you saying Why should Internet companies be taxed? Because all other companies are being taxed when offering products or services to citizens of the given country, within the legislation of that country. Certain Internet companies use questionable tax planning strategies (in Europe as well as the US) to pay a ridiculously small amount of taxes and thus gaining an unfair advantage. > Or Why should taxes exist at all? Because running a country costs money which is required to provide services such as law enforcement and a regulated banking system. These services are required by citizens and corporations alike. But going further down this argument is obviously not in the scope of this discussion thread and will not end up being a fruitful conversation. We're talking about a small-ish change to the tax system rather than a full blown anarchist revolution here.

mercurial 13y ago

Why shouldn't they pay their fair share? Normal companies who make profits get taxed. Giant companies funnel their profits through Holland and Ireland, and pay a paltry amount. Back in the days, the nobility had also exempted itself from taxes. I see no reason for this state of affairs to continue.

davidw 13y ago
So the solution is for .nl and .ie to close their loopholes, not create new taxes, no? They recently passed a similar tax in Italy, and the whole thing was about how the big bad American companies are making money and not investing in Italy. This, at the same time Fiat is decamping from Italy because the business climate is so shitty. So what's their creative answer to improve things? Another tax!
- nl 13y ago
  So the solution is for .nl and .ie to close their loopholes, not create new taxes, no? .ie is the loophole, most of the time.
  - davidw 13y ago
    I think it'd be fair if companies like Google that have their corporate EU base in Ireland were taxed in the EU at Ireland's corporate tax rate, in full. It's low, but higher than what they effectively pay.
    - dmoo 13y ago
      To be fair, they do pay their tax in Ireland. It just seems that there isn't a whole lot of profit earned due to 'admin-charges' http://www.theguardian.com/business/ireland-business-blog-with-lisa-ocarroll/2011/mar/24/google-ireland-tax-reasons-bermuda http://www.theguardian.com/business/ireland-business-blog-wi... Disclaimer: I am Irish

charlysisto 13y ago

It's not about internet companies, it's about a set of multinational companies (amazon, starbuck, McDonald & many others including non-US) using a set of legal fiscal tricks to pay a ridicule amount of taxes compared to the national based ones & individuals. It's hurting competition and feeding the increasingly wide gap between wages & company income.

DanBC 13y ago

Google does a lot of business in the UK. I can buy, with real English money products from Google employees in an Enish Google office. For them to include a token step at the end of that process (invisible to the user) of having a Google employee in the Irish Google office just so they can avoid paying the English corporation tax is shady. Google quasi-legally avoids a huge amount of tax. Everyone accepts that reducing your tax burden is legitimate, but there comes a point when it is taking the piss. Paying tax is part of being a member of society. People and corporations not wanting to pay any tax should not be able to claim the benefits tha result from that tax burden. Google benefits from UK education. Google should fucking pay for it. The scary thing is that Google isn't that bad compared to other companies. The scale is huge but the techniques are run of the mill. See some of the water companies who have baffling corporate structures and who use international intra-business loans in order to avoid corporation tax, all while paying massive bonuses to staff, increasing costs to consumers, under funding maintainance, etc. it's infuriating.

doe88 13y ago

Because if you make some business in one country it's fair to proportionally contribute to that country. And hiding behind schemes in order to minimize it should be prohibited.