| News You Can Use |
 |
|
| 18|Jan|10 |
| Taxing Google? |
|
The French have always had a fiercely protective stance towards their cultural industries.
In the 70s they taxed blank tape sales in an attempt to combat the first waves of piracy (how innocent those days of taping the radio seem now…..)
They also clipped cinema tickets, the proceeds ploughed back into the cultural industries.
They were one of the few hold-outs against elimination of cultural tariffs in the WTO negotiations.
Not surprising that they are now considering novel laws to counter the loss of revenue caused by illegal downloading.
The Subsidised Music Card
French consumers are big music pirates, almost as big as Australians. For these download junkies, they are proposing a “methadone” strategy.Wean them off illegal downloads and turn them on to the legal stuff. When they are in a comfortable iTunes-like space, perhaps they will never go back to the dark side?.
So, offer a music download card with a face value of say
$25, but an actual value of $50, the balance being made up by the French government.
A Tax on Google
The second more controversial proposal involves taxing Google (and the other online search/advertising entities) on the revenues generated by their online advertising.
Google, like many other companies, minimises its tax. Instead of paying the 30-odd percent company tax in France, they pay something more like 5%.
To claw back some of this lost revenue, tax Google I or 2% on ad revenue, the money being put back into the cultural industries to compensate them for the loss of revenue caused by piracy of cultural products.
Australians love a cultural subsidy - could the French schemes work here? |
 |
| Paul Bagueira |
“Not surprising that they are now considering novel legislation to counter the loss of revenue caused by illegal downloading.”
What if they’ve got it all wrong?
Various people love to claim that the internet is killing the music industry. Bullshit. |
| ...read more |
|
| Peter Bain-Hogg |
Death and Taxes. The two only things we can be sure of but Google shouldn’t worry about either right now. |
| ...read more |
|
| Nick Bolton |
Taxes, bloody taxes. why does everything have to be taxed?
Don't all goods incur 10%GST already?
Doesn’t Google have to pay GST, corporation tax and goodness knows what else?
So why push the price up to annoy the consumer even more? |
| ...read more |
|
| David Court |
I believe the average Treasury economist would rather strangle herself with her own intestines than approve a 'Google Tax'. |
| ...read more |
|
| Simon Curry |
The French do have a long history of proactive government policy to protect what they perceive to be their cultural heritage. Although laudable in many ways (we all remember the debate over “le hamburger” in the 80’s, I presume) in these days of instant global communication, I suggest that protection of language through legislation is both inappropriate and impractical. |
| ...read more |
|
| Brad Giblin |
Newspapers are asking us to change our values in order to support their products. It hasn't won them many friends. |
| ...read more |
|
|
|
 |
Del.icio.us
Digg
Stumble Upon
Reddit
