Australian Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey aims his taxing sites at digital content in general with a proposed “Netflix Tax.” With an increase on digital goods prices of 10%, it is expected that the tax would being about $350 million AUD over the first four years of its life, that money being sent directly to the states. The theory is that the goods and service tax would be tagged onto digital content, with consumers being asked to pay for the tax. According to Joe Hockey,
“What we’re doing is going to digital providers overseas and saying ‘can you apply the GST to the products you provide into Australia?’. They [the tech companies] are agreeable to it. It’s not their profits [being taxed]. It’s a tax collected and they remit it back to the country where that [consumption tax] occurs.”
It is unclear whether the Opposition would even vote for such a tax. However, if this tax does go through, it does hold out hope that Steam prices will now be shown in AUD rather than USD. What are your thoughts on this new tax? Sound off in the comments!
Source: Gizmodo