U.K. to implement a 20% tax on digital downloads

U.K. to implement a 20% tax on digital downloads.

-- Tom

 

Typical Tories. Ask them about the trillions in offshore accounts that aren't contributing tax to the economy. Double standards or just plain dishonesty?

 

Wow 20% tax?
I guess the best way to get software/games will be buying physical copies.

 

There again we get free health care ... Swings and roundabouts ...

 

Isn't there a NHS tax?

 

Maybe not. It sounds as if this is not a tax intended to target downloads but rather to bring them in line with physical goods. People have been able to get around the tax by buying downloads instead of physical goods, as the downloads are taxed on the country of origin. I would think that physical goods are already taxed, at least if they are bought locally in the UK; is it different for goods bought from other countries?

In the US, many of us are not charged tax on online purchases (including downloads) as they are only taxed on residents of the states in which the business has a presence. So since Amazon is based in Washington, for a while only Washington residents were compelled to pay taxes on purchases from them. They have since expanded and laws have been passed that require them to charge in other states such as New York and Texas. I think eventually all purchases will be taxed though.

Ultimately, I don't think taxing downloads will put much of a dent in their popularity. The convenience will still be attractive to consumers; I mean, people who are used to digital music aren't going to go out and get a CD player and pay taxes on CDs in protest. The steep discounts on games offered by Steam and Amazon will still be steep enough even with taxes.

 

It's called National Insurance.

 

Indeed we pay 20% Value Added Tax (VAT) on many physical goods including CDs & DVDs. One of a myriad of 'stealth' taxes HM Government impose to keep the underlying levels on taxation derived directly from our income under control.

For info when buying digital downloads of software from other countries, entering a UK address normally puts the price of your software up by 20% to cover the VAT payment.

The 20% on software hacks me off more than creating parity with physical and digital media. Anyway my choice whether to buy I suppose.

The other issue here is it may encourage the use of illegal file sharing if it creates affordability issues for otherwise honest users.

Cheers

 

For overseas readers, it's not just those items, but 99.9% of purchases for whatever ! 20% tax gets slapped on ALL that

Which means, it might appear that the tax rate, income tax, is @ the amount it is, but in reality the amount of tax we pay is a LOT more due to 'stealth' taxes

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Sure we have the NHS, & i'm glad we do But just this week we found out that £7 Billion of fraud happened just in this last year Sort that out & they wouldn't need to Impose more taxes, & less overall.

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No doubt it will encourage more pirating ! Not that i agree with that.

 

or just sort out the tax office as the value of mistakes from them costs more than the amount that is lost in benefit fraud.

 

Just making the wealthy pay their dues tax wise would solve our fiscal problems. Benefit 'fraud' is nothing and pales into insignificance compared to the tax evasion of the super rich.