Maryland is the first state to tax digital advertising

• Maryland is the first state to tax digital advertising... with a levy of up to10% on revenue for firms making $100m+. Facebook and Google are a little bit above this threshold, with respective digital ad revenues of $84B and $147B last year.

 

I'm sure this will work out great for Maryland.

 

were digital advertising firms not paying their taxes? wtf

 

Europe tried this, but Tech found a way around it. Google, Apple, and Amazon simply added a 2% surcharge to citizen customers in the Countries who were implementing the tax.

So it ends up being an additional tax on European businesses who advertise - NOT on big tech.

So big tech will simply add a 2% surcharge to Maryland customers. And that's how taxes and tariffs work.

 

In Europe, this "digital tax" was added on top of the 20% VAT that Google, Apple, and Amazon were already paying to the EU.

 

All of the above and yet people wonder why bitcoin is leaping in value.

 

I read a paper a few years ago by the Milken Institute - the underground cash economy of the EU is insane due to the VAT. The OECD says it’s somewhere between 4 - 17%.

 

This is what the VAT wrought:

https://www.milkenreview.org/articles/the-curse-of-cash

“A rough estimate for the absolute size of the eurozone underground economy would be $3 trillion.“

 

First of all the range quote is meaninglessly wide.
Secondly if you just believe a mid-range of 10.5% I have a bridge in San Francisco to sell you very cheaply. You know the one known for its many suicide jumps.

 

I don’t know what’s true and what’s not - my only firm conviction is that at some inflection point taxes encourage avoidance.