Quebec is getting serious about taxing Amazon.com and Netflix Inc.
Canada’s second-most populous province on Tuesday said it would make the collection of the provincial sales tax mandatory for suppliers of goods and services based outside Quebec to put them on par with local rivals.
Quebec expects the measures will enable it to recover C$155 million (US$120 million) in lost revenue over five years, according to budget documents released in Quebec City.
Photo: AP
A failure to collect taxes on online sales of goods and services to companies outside the province costs Quebec about C$270 million annually, according to estimates by the provincial Ministry of Finance.
Most of the money, or C$158 million, pertains to goods such as shoes and clothes purchased abroad, Quebec Minister of Finance Carlos Leitao said on Tuesday.
An agreement between Los Gatos, California-based Netflix and the federal government over filming in Canada provoked widespread outrage in Quebec last year, in part because it did not subject the company to a sales tax.
That sparked the ire of Canadian media companies that must apply the tax, including on streaming units they set up to compete with Netflix.
“For services, Netflix and others, we are proposing legislative measures that will force these companies to register for our provincial sales tax regime,” Leitao said on Tuesday at a news conference in Quebec City. “They will need to collect the sales tax and to send it to us.”
For companies selling goods online, Quebec will follow the approach recommended by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is to collect taxes at the border, Leitao said.
Starting on Jan. 1 next year, foreign companies that sell more than C$30,000 a year in taxable supplies of goods or services to Quebec consumers would be required to register for the provincial sales tax, budget documents show.
Until now, suppliers without a physical or significant presence in the province were not required to register for the tax, or to collect or remit it.
Canadian companies that do not have a physical or significant presence in Quebec are to get eight more months to adjust: They are not going to be required to register for the provincial sales tax until Sept. 1 next year.
“Given the Canadian economy’s high level of integration, a potentially significant number of businesses of all sizes may be impacted,” the ministry’s document said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS