Qu??bec Sales tax

Tue Mar 27 22:30:24 UTC 2018

On 2018-03-27 18:21, Ken Chase wrote:
> If Netflix has no physical presence in Quebec, what the lever are they going
> to use to force this? A lawsuit in <state of netflix incorporation> in the
> US? What court is going to entertain a foreign jurisdiction's tax claim in
> their court? And how would that be then enforced?

Or Netflix could just call the QC govt's bluff and just stop serving QC
customers and see QC voters rebel against the government if they lose
Netflix.

The "no presence in Canada" has had other impacts *Netflix refusing to
comply to a CRTC request for infornation claiming CRTC doesn't regulate
foreign companies with no presence in Canada).  (Ironically, Netflix has
hired lobysists who are quite active in Canada).

The jurisdiction aspect is an important one. Basically, the current
structure favour people buying services outside their own country to
avoid tax. And it isn't just in Canada. (For instance, the small
Canadian streaming services have to charge tax to their customers, but
Netflix doesn't. (google/apple do because they have physical presence here).

BTW, and this is a serious Orwelian thing, foreign providers who
register will be required to give the QC government their customer lists
so that the QC govt can find any tax cheaters who pretend to live in
different province and charhe penalies of $100 or more to those
individuals).

So the QC govt will claim some fairly serious extra-territorial powers.