Sarkozy wants major internet companies to pay tax in France

Yesterday, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he wants 'Internet giants' such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to pay tax in France because they wouldn’t be paying their fair share.

According to Sarkozy 'It is unacceptable that they have a turnover of several billion euros in France without paying tax.’ Furthermore he said that the French government should consider taxing online advertising revenues.

The latter statement seems to be outdated as last year the National Assembly of France already rejected plans for a proposed tax on online advertising revenues. They feared the project would hurt small local companies more than global Internet giants.

One could wonder if paying taxes indeed will help the French economy. That being said, Google cited a report claiming internet companies contributed 60 billion euros to the French economy in 2009 and could create 450.000 jobs by 2015.

Reference: Straits Times