Dang, Maybe we should start a separate section called the āDigital Tax Hullabaloo.ā
Canada plans to impose taxes on Tech Giants starting from 2022. It will remain in place until a common consensus is agreed upon by the OECD or the G20 nations. This tax will boost the revenues by $2.6B over 5 years! France has already initiated a similar plan. And Indonesia has already started 10% VAT on digital products and services from internet-based firms.
Israel just paid 3.77B shekels ($1.14B) to the Palestinian Authority as tax money. Wait! But why is Israel paying Palestine?
A brief history. The story revolves around the peace accords of 1990. After the Palestinian Authority was set up, the Israeli and Palestinian Governments had to work out a new taxation system for the newly self-governing areas.
Protocol on Economic Relations was set up in 1994. Palestine had the right to collect taxes directly from its people, and indirectly via Israel. One example: Israel continued to collect duties and the āVATā on imports that came through Israeli ports. But if these imports ended up in the Palestinian areas, Israel would have to turn that money over to Palestine. Israel is also supposed to send back the VAT that Palestinians pay for Israeli goods, as well as any excise taxes that Palestinians have to pay for fuel, cigarettes, and alcohol.
These rules go both ways. Palestine, too, collects a tiny bit of money on behalf of Israel. The final number reflects the indirect taxes owed to the PA, minus anything the Palestinians owe for Israeli utilities like electricity and telephone service. Payments usually tend to be about $50M, which covers around half of the Palestinian Authorityās total operating expenses.
Israel has tried to cut off these transfers over the past years. Benjamin Netanyahu stopped these transfers after a series of deadly bombings in 1997. He stopped the transfers again with the start of the intifada in 2000.
Presently, the Palestinians were the ones who rejected the money due to Netanyahuās plans to annex parts of the West Bank. But during Augustā20 Israel Froze its annexation plans as a part of diplomatic ties with the UAE.
Hence, the PA is again cooperating with the Israelis.
š® Nevada, the state famous for its gaming sector has a burning hole of $1.2B deficit. To fix that, the lawmakers are targeting the stateās mining industry. The industry has enjoyed a cap on tax rates for years and years now. This cap has to be removed and rates need to be increased. The state would put the question of raising state mining taxes to voters in 2022.
šŗ Netflix has a huge market in the UK with the total number of users estimated to reach 14M by 2021. But in February, it found itself in the center of tax haven acquisitions. The British think tank Tax Watch had condemned Netflix for moving almost $327.8m to $430m in profits to low tax jurisdictions. This was too much to take for little boy Netflix. It will now start declaring its U.K. revenues ā forecast to reach Ā£1.3B ($1.B) next year ā to British tax authorities. And since the money from subscriptions in the U.K. will now be officially recognized, it can therefore be officially taxed.
Iām gassy and I know it – 1.5 Billion cows in this world! And one cow can release almost 150 to 320 liters of methane and 1,500 liters of carbon dioxide per day via burps and farts. This amounts to 15-25% of the total gas emissions in the air. They account for almost 18% of Europeās greenhouse gases. Bad news for the environment!
Does the cow fart tax sound so ridiculous now? It really does exist in Estonia, Denmark, and other European nations. Its purpose is rather serious. This is a way for the government to try to prevent air pollution and reduce the greenhouse effect.
Here comes the criticism. What about other animals who are bred for human consumption and diary? Also, the amount of protein that is provided by the raising of cattle for human consumption, is not an easy source to do away with. And what should countries whose use of certain food products such as legumes (beans) be held accountable for their excess CO2 and methane production?
Letās ignore the above and talk about what could change. According to research (from CE Delft university in the Netherlands), this tax could lead to a reduction of up to 120M tons of CO2 each year. This is 3% of all EU greenhouse gas emissions and equivalent to the combined emissions of Ireland, Denmark, Slovakia, and Estonia.
Wherever the cows go now, the wind wonāt go free.
