France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by US
I never understood the logic behind taxing large internet businesses.<p>The idea behind taxes is that you use some public resource and you pay for that service. You own a home in a neighborhood, you pay property tax that funds the schools. You drive a car, you pay gasoline tax that funds the streets. You hire workers locally, you pay the tax to pay back all the contributions public institutions made to adding the skills to the worker.<p>But the idea that a company like Amazon owes some tax to France doesn't make sense. Sure the delivery person uses the roads, but they pay the gasoline tax and the delivery company pays taxes. What public resources did Amazon, a US company, use from France?<p>The other theories of taxation is that it should be used to raise revenue from the best means possible. I disagree with that framework but applying taxes arbitrarily hardly seems fair or the best way to raise revenue.<p>The other argument is that the government should "level the playing field". But again arbitrarily punishing or helping some corporations opens up the possibility of corruption and corporate meddling as corporations look for favors. Much of the edge Amazon has versus local retailers is that it is more efficient. It doesn't take up store space (and pay taxes on the land) and it doesn't have to hire a lot of local workers (and pay taxes on their salaries). It's simply more efficient and its services are appreciated by the consumers.