Posted on 12/13/2001 12:23:39 PM PST by NativeNewYorker
Brussels, Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- European Union finance ministers agreed to impose a tax for three years on music, software and computer games downloaded on the Internet from outside Europe by EU citizens.
The proposal, which could spark a clash with the U.S., would set a value-added tax on all ``digital'' products sold to EU customers. Currently EU businesses levy that tax, while their non- European rivals are exempt.
The tax ``will remove a major competitive handicap,'' Financial Services Commissioner Frits Bolkestein told a news conference.
The closing of the European tax loophole comes as online businesses struggle for survival. Yahoo! Inc., owner of the top Internet search site and a bellwether for the industry, is worth less than a tenth of what it was at its peak in January 2000.
The EU tax would expire after three years. Finance ministers would seek to replace it with a worldwide system that taxes Internet downloads at the point of consumption. The 15-nation EU could also extend its tax by unanimous vote.
Finance ministers will complete the tax plan in February. Revenue would go to the country of the consumer's home country, so that high-tax countries such as Sweden and Denmark don't lose out if Web-based businesses register in countries with lower taxes such as Luxembourg.
Sweden and Denmark charge 25 percent value-added tax, compared to 15 percent in Luxembourg.
Ahahahahaha... these morons. The tax itself is the major competitive handicap. They prefer to risk a trade war than to remove the obstacles that they themselves put in place.
This plan would at least require cooperation and enforcement by our various government agencies. And it would run into some of the same lobbies that have resisted taxation of the internet here.
Idjuts.
;) ttt
Le Mythe du Urban?
your are correct, but so is nativ new yorker. for a variety of reasons, europe is farther ahead in their application of wirelss technology. with 3G technology, the phone will be able to download all types of media onto the handset. europe does not want content competition -- which they will get -- but they are way ahead of us in the communication infrastructure.
why will content be big -- pornography. pornography has almost always been the first application for new technologies. pornography is big business and it enables the price points for the new technology come down as people utilize it. europe is trying to keep american pornography out.
Couldn't find it right away on snopes... Coming from bloomberg, I would doubt it, too.
(Not to mention that it just SOUNDS like something those eurotrash would do...)
;) ttt
Isn't most of the porno we get here coming from servers in Europe-- to avoid prosecution from local governments?
A trade group in the U.S. representing Microsoft Corp. and AOL Time Warner Inc. said the main issue is how the EU seeks to enforce the order.
``There's never been a question about whether these products could be taxed,'' said Mark Nebergall, president of the Software Finance and Tax Executive Council, which represents Microsoft. ``The question is how they enforce it.''
Socialists et al have been implementing taxation for hundreds (thousands?) of years. Believe me, they'll find a way. If there's anything they are good at, great at, it's stealing OUR money.
Mark W.
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