Canada plans digital tax in 2022 on Google, FB
OTTAWA: Canada plans to impose a tax on corporations providing digital services from 2022 that will stay in place until major nations come up with a coordinated approach on taxation, the finance department said on Monday.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is working on a common approach to ensure digital behemoths, such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc, pay their share of taxes as the coronavirus hammers budgets.
Canada said it was concerned about a delay in reaching agreement. The threat of digital services taxes has prompted threats of trade retaliation from outgoing US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The new tax would come into effect on January 1, 2022, and remain in place until a common approach is agreed upon. The measure would raise federal revenues by C$3.4 billion ($2.6 billion) over five years, starting in the 2021-22 fiscal year.
“Canadians want a tax system that is fair, where everyone pays their fair share,” finance minister Chrystia Freeland told legislators in the fall economic update.
Amnesty: Big Tech firms curbing Vietnam dissent Facebook and Google are fast becoming “human rights-free zones” in Vietnam, Amnesty International warned Tuesday, accusing the tech titans of helping censor peaceful dissent and political expression in the country. Communist Vietnam has long jailed its critics but has come under fire in recent years for targeting users on Facebook, a popular forum for activists in the country where all independent media is banned.
The social network admitted earlier this year that it was blocking content deemed illegal by authorities and revealed a nearly 1,000% increase in the content it censors on government orders compared to the previous six months.