Let's Get Small Businesses to Help Amazon Pay Their Taxes!

[Galant]

https://tamebay.com/2020/08/2-amazon...x-uk-smes.html

Let's charge big online businesses a 2% tax, said the government.

“Under the current international tax framework, the value businesses derive from user participation is not taken into account when allocating the profits of business between different countries. This measure will ensure the large multinational businesses in-scope make a fair contribution to supporting vital public services.”
– HM Revenue & Customs




What a great idea!

Amazon responded:

"Earlier this spring, the UK government introduced a Digital Services Tax . While the legislation was being passed, and as we continued our discussions with the government to encourage them to take an approach that would not impact our selling partners, we absorbed this increase..."

"...Now that the legislation has passed, we want to inform you that we will be increasing Referral fees, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) fees, monthly FBA storage fees and Multichannel Fulfilment (MCF) fees by 2% in the UK to reflect this additional cost. We will not apply the increased charges retroactively, but starting 1 September 2020, the fee types listed above will increase.”



Who would have guessed it?

[cheesemp]

Its typical half baked government response. Let's look like we are doing something but hey who cares if it works or not (bit like most of the coronavirus response). These multinationals know how to work the system and they do.

[kalniel]

Isn't that the desired outcome? It makes Amazon slightly more expensive for third parties to use as a retailer, so very slightly increasing the chance non-Amazon retailers will get the trade instead?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The problem is countries such as France tried to get big US companies to pay more tax,on their in-country profits,but have been threatened with retaliation:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUKKBN24A377

[Saracen999]

The problem is countries such as France tried to get big US companies to pay more tax,on their in-country profits,but have been threatened with retaliation:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUKKBN24A377

The problem is that the current international framework allows companies to avoid a lot of "fair" taxes entirely by exploiting tax laws especially double-taxation agreements, that weren't designed witn digital services in mind.

The only solution is for countriex to work it out together, not for the French to freelance standalone messures and the US to react like a spoilt playground bully.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The problem is that the current international framework allows companies to avoid a lot of "fair" taxes entirely by exploiting tax laws especially double-taxation agreements, that weren't designed witn digital services in mind.

The only solution is for countriex to work it out together, not for the French to freelance standalone messures and the US to react like a spoilt playground bully.

Well why you think France has to go it alone?? Europe tried but the US pulled out:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/18/us-p...pes-plans.html

Who do you think gets hits the worst,if the tax laws changes....I give you a hint....US companies. If the US is not bothering to get involved its going to not happen.

At the same times,it also means local companies who pay their taxes can't compete,so win-win.

[Spud1]

The title of this thread is a little clickbaitey isn't it?

UK Gov puts up taxes. Companies pass that increase on to their customers. UK gov tax change doesn't really have desired impact.

Seems pretty normal to me.

[Galant]

Isn't that the desired outcome? It makes Amazon slightly more expensive for third parties to use as a retailer, so very slightly increasing the chance non-Amazon retailers will get the trade instead?

I don't believe so. to my understanding the aim was to get big tech companies to pay more taxes on profits made in the country, but the cost is just passed on to the small businesses who use Amazon as a platform. So if trade moves away from Amazon it moves away from those local businesses who use it.

If the idea was to get people to move away from online business and shop in physical stores it might better serve that purpose, but I'm not sure it levels the playing field in that regard, and ultimately, hurting small UK businesses isn't really the best plan, is it?

[Galant]

The title of this thread is a little clickbaitey isn't it?

UK Gov puts up taxes. Companies pass that increase on to their customers. UK gov tax change doesn't really have desired impact.

Seems pretty normal to me.

Maybe maybe not. That could well have been something said in some Amazon management meeting, and it's pretty much the predictable end result for the governments legislation.

[Xlucine]

Any business selling through amazon is already getting shafted - the amazon business model is set up to kill businesses like that. They let you sell on their platform long enough to show that enough people want to buy that widget through amazon, and then amazon start stocking it themselves and drop the small business off the search results.

I stopped buying anything through amazon a couple months back, and it's been great. It's still easy to find items (between companies I already know about, ebay, and google shopping - I know it's google, but they're not selling stuff themselves and they've already had the antitrust investigations), and I'm not supporting bezos exploiting everyone they're involved with (both small businesses getting killed off by amazon, or the warehouse workers).