I think taxes are very difficult. Personally, I think when Google or Facebook places an ad on its own (public) platform, they should have to pay a tax similar to a sales tax as they have sold themselves. Probably shouldn’t apply to the ads on google.com homepage as they don’t sell those as far as I understand.
The article mentions neutrality in taxes which is either silly or disingenuous though. Our tax code is not neutral. We openly use tax code as a way to motivate public behavior.
Ad space as inventory would be an interesting concept. It is tricky though. What is the value of something before it is sold? What is a fair tax rate? How often does this inventory adjust as you have more or fewer users? Messy.
Actually physical property is at least in my state both physical plant and inventory are taxed.
Interesting, I was not aware of those taxes.
https://taxfoundation.org/does-your-state-tax-business-inven...
Nice introduction. Thank you.
I think taxes are very difficult. Personally, I think when Google or Facebook places an ad on its own (public) platform, they should have to pay a tax similar to a sales tax as they have sold themselves. Probably shouldn’t apply to the ads on google.com homepage as they don’t sell those as far as I understand.
The article mentions neutrality in taxes which is either silly or disingenuous though. Our tax code is not neutral. We openly use tax code as a way to motivate public behavior.
Ad space as inventory would be an interesting concept. It is tricky though. What is the value of something before it is sold? What is a fair tax rate? How often does this inventory adjust as you have more or fewer users? Messy.