Digital Tax Could Impact Tech Giants

The European Commission has announced it's plan to implement a digital tax. The plan is, that companies that make a lot of online revenue should pay a 3% tax on turnover. The people behind this move think that the large tech giants pay too little taxes on their revenue. This would affect companies like Google and Facebook. This is a move that would affect these companies a lot. On average these digital firms pay a tax rate of 9.5% compared to the other European companies that pay around 23.3%. These people believe that the U.S. companies are being under taxed and shouldn't get away with it anymore. Many of the digital companies have stated that they are complying with international tax laws. The rate is at 9.5% because these companies are headquartered outside the EU. The EU is arguing that there is a lot of online revenue being made in the EU that should be taxed more than 9.5%. The EU countries are divided on this issue which indicates that this new law many not come to fruition. 

FIRST POST

Hi friends! it looks like my first post isn't on this page??????? For the life of me I don't know why! But attached is a snippet of what I said, just for the record!! :) 

3,700 people is a lot of people!

So here is the deal, the company Airbus makes Europe's largest "civil and military aerospace" projects, the A380 and A400M planes. And recently they have said that there are around 3,700 jobs that could possibly be lost. This is the result of the falling demand of their A380, and in part to the cost and damages from the "troubled" A400M's. (Total losses costing them around 14 billion!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

The company came out and said that jobs will be affected in all four of its home countries - UK, France, Germany, and Spain. They estimated around 3,700 people are at risk of losing their jobs or at the least being reassigned to different projects. 

Airbus is trying to be optimistic and thankfully did get some orders for planes in, so we hope that helps hold them over for awhile, for the sake of 3,700 hard working people!! Best of luck to them!

U.S. Declares Steel and Aluminum Tariff

In chapter 6 our class covered U.S. tariffs, and read a summary of the sugar subsidies in our text book. I came across a headline ‘U.S.  eyes global Tariff of “at least” 24% on steel imports’ which I thought would be a great foundation to discuss in my groups blog. Just recently on Thursday Trump formally announced his plan to impose 25% tariff on imported steel and 10% tariff on imported aluminum. Looking further into the tariff on aluminum and steel there were mixed reactions from other countries. President Trump is convinced that the tariff will be beneficial to our country, expecting business expansion and job opportunities for the United States. Following Thursdays announcement China reacted with cautious criticism, while Europe reacted with sharp backlash and retaliation. “We will put tariffs on Harley-Davidson, on bourbon and on blue jeans- levi’s,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said, “we cannot simply put out heads in the sand.” China is not worried about the U.S. tariff and does not intend to start a trade war since China accounts for only 2% of U.S. imports, however China does expect the tariff to be self-defeating and is not afraid to start a trade war if needed. “what an extremely stupid move,” vice secretary general of the China Iron and Steel association said, “A desperate attempt by Trump to pander to his voters.” China has proclaimed that their country is in its prime but feels the world trade will be harmed if other countries follows the United States example. The European Union is considering imposing duties on U.S. imports that are worth about $3.5 billion if the tariff is enforced. Canada, South Korea and Mexico have also raised their concerns on the tariff. As far as the other countries are concerned Donald Trump is promising his “America First” agenda by declaring a trade war.   

Denyer, Simon, and Rick Noack. “China Grumbles at Trump's Tariff Move, but Europe Takes Aim at Harleys and Bourbon.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 2 Mar. 2018, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5AmKCUhVIw (this link is the video announcement that President Trump made on March 1^st)