Italy’s Incredible Attempt At A Google Tax
THE Italians have got themselves all het up over the fact that Google doesn’t pay any tax in that country. Or at least one or two politicians have got het up about it. You know, Google sits in Ireland, selling all that advertising into Italy and the poor Italian politicians don’t get to confiscate one red euro of that river of cash. Boo hoo, eh?
In order to try and get a bit of that cash they’ve decided to pass a new law. And one incredible little piece of it is as follows:
The advertising spaces online and sponsored links that appear in the results pages of search engines ( search advertising services ) , viewable on the Italian territory during the visit of a website or the use of an online service through landline or network and mobile devices, must be purchased exclusively through entities , such as publishers, advertising agencies , search engines or other advertiser , registered for VAT issued by the Italian tax . This provision shall also apply in cases where the sales transaction has been carried out through media centers , operators and third parties advertisers.
Isn’t that great? So, an Italian comes to Anorak to read up on the English gossip and stories and we’re only allowed to show them ads that have been bought through a company registered for Italian VAT?
This is really a most amusing idea, don’t you think?
Think it through for a moment. So, an Italian decides to come to England for a bit of a touristy thing. West End, Stonehenge, The Glory That Is Bath, the Cotswolds and back to Gatwick again sorta thing. They obviously start looking around Goolge.co.uk to do a bit of planning. So, the only ads for B&Bs they can be shown are the ones that have remembered to book their ads through an Italian ad broker?
You what?
It’s not going to work, is it?
Posted: 30th, December 2013 | In: Money, Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
