Digital Tax

[_subgenius]

The European Union unveiled sweeping legislative proposals to raise taxes on big technology companies, a move that risks angering U.S. officials when trans-Atlantic relations are already strained by trade tensions.

The proposed taxes are among Europe’s most-aggressive measures to target the perceived excesses of a small cadre of tech superpowers, including Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, potentially adding hundreds of millions of euros to some tech firms’ tax bills. The U.S. warned last week against imposing tax...

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/b ... l?referer=

Indeed, under the Commission proposal, the EU digital tax would be treated as a business expense for tax purposes, thereby directly reducing the amount of tax that would be received by the U.S. Treasury.

[_MeDotOrg]

Are we citizens of countries or of the digital metaverse? When we think of pre-information age commerce, we think of brick and mortar, which means you have to have some sort of physical presence to sell. In the early days of the internet, people were loath to impose sales tax, because they thought it was important to encourage the fledgling technology. That simply does not apply anymore.

Think of it like this: Imagine you are a medieval principality. Every month you have a faire, where local merchants pay a fee to set up booths and sell things. But after a while people just start coming in the gates and selling things without setting up stands or paying a fee. This is an unfair advantage over the town's merchants.

Taxes are a statement of sovereignty over commerce. The EU is stating that you can't cross its borders and do business without being subject to its rules. I think you can make an argument that the tax rates themselves are onerous, but the idea of taxing commerce within your borders is not outlandish.

[_subgenius]

Good points Met, but there is a tax system in place already for those who don't have a booth. The current EU taxes profits and not Revenue for these overseas companies. Now if the EU starts taxing Revenues then the American companies pay more to EU and can lessen their American tax payments.
Likely this could be an attempt to gain leverage with regards to the current US tariff proposal, but I don't think this is simply a position of sovereignty. EU is in desperate need of money.

[_moksha]

What is our tariff position on wine and perfume imports?

Edit - before Shades becomes alarmed, I meant the aromatic type of perfume.