Internet sales tax bill passes Senate, awaits House approval
The Marketplace Fairness Act — which will force online merchants to collect tax on behalf of other states — passed the Senate on Monday. Read more »
“We don’t innovate here” – Google’s curious UK tax rationale
Google tells angry MPs that it doesn’t pay more UK tax because it doesn’t do any innovation in the country. Maybe someone should tell that to Google’s 350 London engineers, who it has previously credited with helping develop AdSense. Read more »
Pigeon power: French startups force government into retreat over equity tax
photo: Flickr user Jmayrault
Faced with a huge hike in taxes on the benefits of equity sales, French entrepreneurs banded together as ‘Les Pigeons’ and forced the government to reverse its plans. Read more »
No, an internet tax won’t save journalism — or newspapers
photo: Shutterstock/iQoncept
An editor at the Guardian argues that newspapers should be funded by a tax on internet service providers, because public journalism needs to be supported. But there are a host of flaws with the idea, including the fact that large newspapers are not synonymous with journalism. Read more »
Senator cries tax tyranny as Amazon law moves forward
photo: Michael D. Brown
Retailers have long complained it’s unfair that online retailers don’t have to collect the same sales tax. Now that a proposed law is about to change that, politicians are warning it will hurt the internet economy. Read more »
Europe sues to continue taxing digital content higher than physical
photo: Evlakhov Valeriy
When is a book not a book? When it comes to European tax law. The continent is acting against two countries that reduced e-book tax to physical rates, in a sorry and technocratic action. Read more at paidContent »
Microsoft in the dock over French tax fraud claims
photo: Jbor/Shutterstock
French media is reporting that Microsoft’s Paris-based subsidiary is being investigated by the country’s tax authorities over its system for avoiding corporate taxes. It marks the latest low point for the business, which wrote down its $6.2bn purchase of aQuantive earlier this week. Read more »
Is Twitter Trying To Catch A Tax Leprechaun?
Twitter’s decision to open an office in Dublin has prompted an Irish government agency to crow about “Ireland’s dynamic digital media cluste… Read more at paidContent »
Twitter goes to Ireland, but will it bring good jobs?
Twitter is opening an office in Dublin, which has become notorious as Europe’s haven for American technology businesses, thanks to its lenient business taxes. But can a new program in London tempt engineers to join new startups, rather than the big names? Read more »
Web Workers Abroad: Now’s the Time to Disclose Tax Naughtiness
For plugged-in workers, the web offers the ability to work from anywhere – including other countries. For web workers who’ve worked while abroad and maybe weren’t entirely honest with Uncle Sam about the money they made there, the IRS is currently offering an amnesty. Read more »
