ZeroPike1 wrote on Feb 26, 2024, 06:11:
On the surface I cannot believe I support the asshats in the movie biz but it’s the internet, media should be tax free.
But again I only understand the surface level of this topic. I could be completely wrong to support those blood sucking executives…
WHY should it be tax-free, though?
"GENEVA -- Since late last century and the early days of the web, providers of digital media like Netflix and Spotify have had a free pass when it comes to international taxes on films, video games and music that are shipped across borders through the internet."
This reads like in the nascent days of internet commerce, before movies and music were being digitally traded on global platforms, there was no rule in place to tax those sales when it crossed borders. Sales of digital media hadn't taken off yet, so there was nothing to tax. Now here we are in 2024 and these industries enjoy international-tax-free operations. The industry associations of course claim the end of the damned world if we change the rules:
A collapse would deal a “major blow to the credibility and durability" of the WTO and would mark the first time that its members "changed the rules to make it substantially harder to conduct trade,” wrote the group.
Perhaps the concern among nations voting to end the moratorium are concerned about companies like Netflix basing itself in Ireland and selling digital services to citizens of countries around the world where that nation collects no tax on those sales. Ireland collects some tiny portion of corporate income taxes, but that's it. In Canada, we don't pay tax on Netflix subscriptions, it simply is not collected on the invoice. However let's think: streaming services are continuing to take over as the preferred model for media consumption, and so Microsoft Gamepass, Spotify, Netflix, Apple Music, Amazon Audible, and many others enjoy not collecting and remitting taxes on those sales of their subscription goods. Prices are kept marginally lower - in BC Canada it would be 12% of the fee, so if Netflix is $14.99 it's $1.79 in tax or $21 per year. That's tax revenue that's just left on the table, and these streaming services are loving it: they don't collect tax, but Valve
does collect tax in my part of Canada. There is a long-standing policy difference here, and maybe we should think about changing it. I'd be supportive because we always need more tax revenues to provision much-needed government services.