Facebook, Instagram to charge GST on online ads

Facebook and Instagram will charge the goods and services tax on online advertisements purchased through their Canadian operations, but other technology giants said they aren’t ready to follow suit just yet. The U.S.based social media networks said they decided to apply the taxes by mid-2019 in an effort to “provide more transparency to governments and policy makers around the world who have called for greater visibility over the revenue associated with locally supported sales in their countries.” Ottawa has long faced pressure to force foreign services to apply sales taxes, but has shied away from the measures to prevent small businesses losing customers to larger firms based abroad.