The business world is mobilizing

Philippe Orfali

Thursday, December 7, 2017 01:00

UPDATE
Thursday, December 7, 2017 01:00

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In an unprecedented move, the business world of Quebec joins its voice to artists and politicians to denounce the inaction of Ottawa in the face of american giants like Netflix, Google and Amazon, which take advantage of the laws “archaic” to pay little or no taxes.

“It is easier to type on small businesses than on Google or Facebook,” says the vice-president of the canadian Federation of independent business, Martine Hébert. “Our laws were made in times when corporations had a single physical address. Today they are virtual and dispersed in several countries. “

Actions claimed

It is up to Ottawa to take the actions to obtain the tax revenues required to pay these companies, who earn tens of billion $ every year with almost nothing to pay in Canada, ” she adds. “Unfortunately, this is not where the government puts its energy. “

Unfair

The chair of the Conseil du patronat du Québec, Yves-Thomas Dorval, is also critical of Ottawa.

“It is completely unfair to quebec companies. There is an apathy, a complacency of the government. You can’t make it last that. “

The problem lies as much on the side of the sale of goods online, on Amazon, for instance, that the dissemination of content, on Netflix.

Then you must pay the GST and the QST on goods purchased in the store, Amazon is not required to collect these taxes. Same thing for Netflix, so that services such as Illico are, themselves, taxed.

“Businesses, whether they come from Canada or from abroad, must play by the same rules ! “said Mr. Dorval.

Worse, these companies also benefit from the holes in the law to avoid the tax. Apple, for example, has an effective tax rate of just 0,005 %, says the tax Marwah Rizqy.

“The law must be modernized to update the concept of operation of business to include the sale online and to review tax treaties to update the concept of permanent establishment to include a transactional web site. “

The european Union, Japan, Australia, and several countries have closed the breaches of their laws, says the president of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, Stéphane Forget.