Billing Google the Government Way
January 8, 2010
A happy quack to the reader who alerted me to this Canada.com article “France Considers ‘Google Tax’ to Pay Creative Workers”. Google has some horsepower, but it must tax its customers indirectly. Countries do not have to fool around with indirect taxes. You get a bill and you pay. If you don’t pay, life becomes interesting. What’s interesting about this angle is summed up in this comment:
The levy, which would also apply to other operators such as MSN and Yahoo, would put an end to “enrichment without any limit or compensation,” newspaper Liberation quoted Guillaume Cerutti, one of the authors of the report, as saying. It would apply even if the operator had its offices outside France, as long as the Internet users who click on ad banners or sponsored links are here, the paper said.
If France pulls this off, it is possible to tax Google into submission. I thought lawyers were going to be one of the Google killers. I forgot to include the tax authorities. The article does not dig into definitions and limits. But it is a stylish idea in my opinion. Ah, the French. Endlessly surprising.
Stephen E. Arnold, January 8, 2010
I was not paid to write this article. I will report this to the Jefferson County tax authority, an outfit that wonders why I live in Louisville but I do not work in Louisville. It’s only been 20 years.
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