I'm trying to remember the last week a new tax was not introduced in France... I can't find, someone to help ?
I might be a bit cynical, but the truth is that this has nothing to do with culture, the French internet, or anything similar: this has all to do with France abyssal debt and chronically unbalanced budgets (the last balanced budget was in the seventies...), and the need for the government to get more money.
So why Google ? Because it's easy to explain citizens that you are going to tax a foreign company. Easier than telling them that they will have to pay yet another tax. And if it doesn't work because of the EU, the government will have someone else to blame for the need of a new tax on the French taxpayer... et voilà.
This, or they are really stupid and think that taxing Google will somehow have a positive outcome on French economy. I don't think they are stupid.
I might be a bit cynical, but the truth is that this has nothing to do with culture, the French internet, or anything similar: this has all to do with France abyssal debt and chronically unbalanced budgets (the last balanced budget was in the seventies...), and the need for the government to get more money.
So why Google ? Because it's easy to explain citizens that you are going to tax a foreign company. Easier than telling them that they will have to pay yet another tax. And if it doesn't work because of the EU, the government will have someone else to blame for the need of a new tax on the French taxpayer... et voilà.
This, or they are really stupid and think that taxing Google will somehow have a positive outcome on French economy. I don't think they are stupid.