[governance] Re: Telecom TV on Google and Taxes

[parminder]

On Thursday 13 December 2012 10:52 AM, Ian Peter wrote:
> Yes, I agree with the sentiments expressed by Parminder and Louis. 
> Google is behaving badly in many ways, and its tax avoidance is a 
> prime example. This being raised now is not some sort of anti-Internet 
> conspiracy, its an expression of frustration that they are able to get 
> away with this.
Ian,

It cannot be simply dismissed as a bad behaviour. It is a global IG 
issue. FOr instance, EU has an agreement among member countries about 
e-commerce related taxes, and I think they may revisit it, or seek new 
agreements, in the background of recent issues that France, UK and 
others have raised about google's taxes.

At WCIT, most developing countries were concerned about how they are not 
able to get some legitimate dues out of the multi billion global digital 
businesses, which are furthering already unbalanced North wards flows of 
economic value. They sought the wrong way to go about it, seeking 
telecom rentals from such big businesses, which by compromising net 
neutrality would have hurt developing countries most. However, the basic 
concern of not getting legitimate public dues is not misplaced. (You 
will see that the ITR text still has a part on fiscal taxes.)

If we just dismiss this as a minor issue of wrong doing and not a global 
Internet governance issue, we are reinforcing the feeling that most 
developing country governments, and the politically involved civil 
society from these countries, in any case has about what generally goes 
for the global IG civil society. Accordingly, we can do so at the 
(further) cost of our credibility.

> But I don’t really think much will be achieved by a letter.

I am not sure what gets practically achieved by many other letters that 
IGC writes, other than giving a message about what we consider as 
important, and are ready to but our might behind.

No I am not canvassing for support for a possible letter to google etc. 
People would support or not as per their established beliefs and 
convictions. But I must keep on arguing for what I think is the right 
and balanced progressive view that global IG civil society must take, 
and be seen as taking.

parminder
> *From:* Louis Pouzin (well) <mailto:pouzin at well.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, December 13, 2012 4:07 PM
> *To:* governance at lists.igcaucus.org 
> <mailto:governance at lists.igcaucus.org> ; Suresh Ramasubramanian 
> <mailto:suresh at hserus.net>
> *Cc:* Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro 
> <mailto:salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> ; parminder 
> <mailto:parminder at itforchange.net>
> *Subject:* [governance] Re: Telecom TV on Google and Taxes
> *+ 1*
> Louis
> - - -
>
> On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 5:51 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian 
> <suresh at hserus.net <mailto:suresh at hserus.net>> wrote:
>
>     A strong -1
>
>     --srs (iPad)
>
>     On 13-Dec-2012, at 10:10, "Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro"
>     <salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com
>     <mailto:salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>     On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 5:33 PM, parminder
>>     <parminder at itforchange.net <mailto:parminder at itforchange.net>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>         Rather shameful that google paid 3 percent tax on its
>>         overseas profit!! It surely leaves it with a lot of money to
>>         spend in lobbying and advocacy efforts to keep global markets
>>         free for its unlettered operations... Like organising
>>         campaigns against ITU, German legislature, and so on.
>>
>>     What does the list think?
>>     +1 if you think the IGC should write a letter to Google
>>     -1 if the IGC should not write a letter to Google
>>     As always the IGC decides
>
>
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