High Court orders govt to raise taxes on Google, YouTube, and Facebook

[UKBengali]

I doubt online shop owners would increase the price simply due to they have to pay bit more on advertising;

E commerce is still relatively a new phenomenon in BD, the market and the demand for it is still growing, increasing prices (for this reason) at this stage would be suicidal as it would turn away many potential and current buyers.

That poster is a troll and does not know what he is talking about.

 

[Tanveer666]

That poster is a troll and does not know what he is talking about.

I think he has a point though, increased taxes would turn away companies / discourages consumers.

Take our local mobile market for example.For example when a company imports a mobile ( for instance a xiaomi redmi 5) it would cost consumers around a grand total of BDT15.5K (25% import tax added over the base line 12000 price) while most 3rd party(read luggage party, that pays no tax) are selling this at around 12-13K; and as expected, consumers flood the said luggage party shops and who can blame them? why would you people 3K extra for the same product.

of course, if the illegal channel of importing was strictly monitored that we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place. But this is Bangladesh so this method is next to impossible.

So, the result is that the gov. is loosing vast sums of money due to their shortsightedness. Instead of a flat 25% import tax they ought to impose tax on the retail price of the said mobiles, like under $100 get 5% | 100-150 gets 10% | 150-200 gets 15% etc etc. That way, the consumers have a reasonable incentive to buy the "legal" products instead of the tax evaded ones.

I dont know why high court did not include youtube data (not ad revenue) which earns the most by selling contents and data to the ISP companies. May be the lawyer was no aware of that. But its a good start.

Why target youtube data specifically?

Dude don't intervene in communist feelz

So what do you feel? that taxation is theft?

 

[asgur]

I think govt. starting to notice peoples earning through YouTube Partner Program and such

 

[Tanveer666]

I think govt. starting to notice peoples earning through YouTube Partner Program and such

i thought the companies themselves were taxed, and not the users.

 

[asgur]

i thought the companies themselves were taxed, and not the users.

Here what it says in the news:

The High Court on Thursday ordered the government to levy tax and other duties on the revenue earned in the country by Google, Facebook, YouTube and Amazon.

You are right.

 

[Mage]

I wish we could ban the likes of google, facebook and develop our own search engines, social media platforms...but that's impossible.

 

[Centaur]

but that's impossible.

If you know that's impossible, don't bother day dreaming.
It will only show that how irrelevant we are. So don't prove ourselves irrelevant.

 

[bête noire]

If you know that's impossible, don't bother day dreaming.
It will only show that how irrelevant we are. So don't prove ourselves irrelevant.

You edited out everything

I am responding to your non edited comment.

BD can make search engine and make people use it. Like how china banned google and people use the Chinese search engine. If BD makes search engine in Bangla (and English option too ofc) and bans google then BD can have decent numbers of users. Tech products like cellphone sellers will have to implement Bangladeshi search engine in their phone to enter the market.

Facebook though, is a different story. BD can't do anything about it.

 

[Centaur]

You edited out everything

I am responding to your non edited comment.

BD can make search engine and make people use it. Like how china banned google and people use the Chinese search engine. If BD makes search engine in Bangla (and English option too ofc) and bans google then BD can have decent numbers of users. Tech products like cellphone sellers will have to implement Bangladeshi search engine in their phone to enter the market.

Facebook though, is a different story. BD can't do anything about it.

I wrote that because I just missed his last sentence. If he wouldn't write his last sentence," but it's impossible", I wouldn't edit.
But surely if he really think so , then he may take every word as I wrote. Being optimistic is good , but not to be over optimistic.
Atleast Internet with Google search engine? Shoot me first., then ban Google.
If BD needs to make it then should make it first ,still no banning like Chinese style!

 

[Nilgiri]

So what do you feel? that taxation is theft?

Largely it is these days in most countries.

We have to define what is the mandate of a govt.

To me it is only for what separate communities (that constitute a larger political entity) and free market cannot provide or have failed at.

Thus this includes (and I go by the large body of civilisation history as proof) only: security + standards + laws and provision of public goods (that which has massive proven positive externality and/or all have equal opportunity for accessing it). In fact even the last one must be open to good, transparent debate...if you look at say the big debate that happened on it in say the US's case from civil war time to start of industrial revolution w.r.t centralized federal issue currency (which is arguably THE largest public good argument a country can do).

Financing this kind of stuff is the only extraction a govt should do, and should do so in the most efficient way possible (i.e not from productive economic spearheads, and definitely not without conducting suitable and transparent opportunity cost analysis).

Everything else a govt should not be involved in at all. The evidence shows its terrible, muddies the water and created captive extraction norms that can actually create large diabetic+impoverished sections of the economy, which then become reliant on identity politics of the politicians:

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/how-to-revolutionize-pakistans-tax-system.551120/page-3#post-10389423

The pro-commies in this thread have little to no idea how increased taxes like this have instant feedback loop to many venture capitalists and investors focused on emerging markets....people that do not take defacto retro-active taxation too kindly, and their memories remain long on it because simply the EM market is very competitive for their liquidity.

It is very concerning that BD govt has managed to permeate taxation = good in the minds of the population, keeping them captive on the issue (and focused only on RMG as spearhead, reliant on LDC quotas)....they have already crushed much of the simple assembly manufacturing (say in automotive/transport) by this very strategy too.

Then ironically in another thread these uneducated commies will project all kind of airy-fairy projection for BD IT exports and such.....again forgetting what is the threshold level of broader taxation on such industry thats needed to attract sustained investment and cross-investment. BD is simply way too simplistic and govt micro managed heavy in its thinking/policy.

@Joe Shearer @Gibbs

 

[Mage]

If you know that's impossible, don't bother day dreaming.
It will only show that how irrelevant we are. So don't prove ourselves irrelevant.

Wow.......this is an open forum...we can say how we feel...what's the point of getting triggered unnecessarily?

 

[Centaur]

Wow.......this is an open forums...we can say how we feel...what's the point of getting triggered unnecessarily?

It's not me, anti bd trolls will try to show that . Surely we will be ambitious, but not too much lol. However it's up to you I just wrote my opinion, you are free to reject it.

 

[Tanveer666]

Largely it is these days in most countries.

We have to define what is the mandate of a govt.

To me it is only for what separate communities (that constitute a larger political entity) and free market cannot provide or have failed at.

Thus this includes (and I go by the large body of civilisation history as proof) only: security + standards + laws and provision of public goods (that which has massive proven positive externality and/or all have equal opportunity for accessing it). In fact even the last one must be open to good, transparent debate...if you look at say the big debate that happened on it in say the US's case from civil war time to start of industrial revolution w.r.t centralized federal issue currency (which is arguably THE largest public good argument a country can do).

Financing this kind of stuff is the only extraction a govt should do, and should do so in the most efficient way possible (i.e not from productive economic spearheads, and definitely not without conducting suitable and transparent opportunity cost analysis).

Everything else a govt should not be involved in at all. The evidence shows its terrible, muddies the water and created captive extraction norms that can actually create large diabetic+impoverished sections of the economy, which then become reliant on identity politics of the politicians:

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/how-to-revolutionize-pakistans-tax-system.551120/page-3#post-10389423

The pro-commies in this thread have little to no idea how increased taxes like this have instant feedback loop to many venture capitalists and investors focused on emerging markets....people that do not take defacto retro-active taxation too kindly, and their memories remain long on it because simply the EM market is very competitive for their liquidity.

It is very concerning that BD govt has managed to permeate taxation = good in the minds of the population, keeping them captive on the issue (and focused only on RMG as spearhead, reliant on LDC quotas)....they have already crushed much of the simple assembly manufacturing (say in automotive/transport) by this very strategy too.

Then ironically in another thread these uneducated commies will project all kind of airy-fairy projection for BD IT exports and such.....again forgetting what is the threshold level of broader taxation on such industry thats needed to attract sustained investment and cross-investment. BD is simply way too simplistic and govt micro managed heavy in its thinking/policy.

@Joe Shearer @Gibbs

TL;DR: Gov. should perform only the basic tasks of providing security, increase the standards of living (by increasing labor productivity and job/business opportunity), controlling law and order and most importantly provide public goods and services like roads, national defense, access to information, (and maybe even healthcare?) etc. So essentially a very "minimalist" and transparent government. This sounds good....on paper.

The bold part, i agree with. Increased taxes take away the incentive they had to do business here.

In this particular case though , barring a significant tax hike, we(end consumers) are unlikely to see immediate repercussions of the tax hike, but it would eventually lead to increased prices. Did the article mention how much the companies were to be taxed?

 

[Nilgiri]

TL;DR: Gov. should perform only the basic tasks of providing security, increase the standards of living (by increasing labor productivity and job/business opportunity), controlling law and order and most importantly provide public goods and services like roads, national defense, access to information, (and maybe even healthcare?) etc. So essentially a very "minimalist" and transparent government. This sounds good....on paper.

You like to do these TL;DR summaries for me, much appreciated

Its even more important for a govt to first get adequately good at those things (prove its mettle) before worming its way into everything else.

But much of developing world under the guise of identity politics + neo-socialism + warped democracy etc...they have from the outset adopted a post-industrial Byzantine philosophy, carbon copied from countries that did the earlier legwork under much different, minimalist conditions you summarise here....without understanding the importance of those stages of sequencing (important to know well how to mill the grain before you go for icing designs for cake)

The bold part, i agree with. Increased taxes take away the incentive they had to do business here.

Yes! Wish more people get that! The margins are also razor thin....so it doesn't take much to do damage.

In this particular case though , barring a significant tax hike, we(end consumers) are unlikely to see immediate repercussions of the tax hike, but it would eventually lead to increased prices.

Depends on the tax level for sure. The increased prices come from the long term effects of creating more monolithic structures by creating environment that is higher taxed to begin with (so new startups/entrants are dissuaded quite ironically, even though you are taxing the big beefy guy for now).

What BD should do rather is create a strong legislation side of thing that focuses on anti-trust (i.e prevent monopolies) and protect consumers that way....i.e promote more free market competition (but balanced approach in not shooing away the big guys completely)....which would also help the BD entrepreneurs thinking of starting something new and scale up with time etc.

But that needs a strong, effective and focused govt...that is not after simple knee jerk tax reaction.

Did the article mention how much the companies were to be taxed?

I don't see it. Its just a vague concept that the court says needs to be done, I guess legislators will figure out what the appropriate level is to be.