QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Taxation of Digital Entertainment Companies
May 15, 2019
My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. During the first three months of 2019, Quebec collected approximately $15 million simply by making foreign digital companies, including Netflix, Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, charge QST. That amount is much higher than originally anticipated.
The Auditor General of Canada estimates that the government would bring in $169 million if it were to make these foreign companies charge GST like their Canadian competitors.
Yesterday, in response to a question from our colleague Senator Joyal, Minister Morneau said that he was still thinking about how to collect those taxes. However, the answer seems fairly straightforward. All he has to do is make those companies start charging GST.
Can you tell us why the government continues to refuse to make these foreign digital companies collect sales tax when it expects Canadian digital companies to collect and pay it?
Again, I thank the honourable senator for his question. Let me refer, as he did, to the Minister of Finance yesterday in his explanation of the coordination that the Government of Canada is undergoing with respect to like-minded OECD countries to ensure that, as individual countries deal with this sector, they do so in a concerted way so that there’s no tax game-playing by the companies involved. The minister made clear that the Government of Canada was very much engaged in this review and would be making a decision at the appropriate time.
Is the government aware that it has been so lax on this issue that it might even lose Senator Joyal’s vote?
That’s a very interesting concept. Like the honourable senator, I enjoyed the question and the response yesterday and have nothing to add.
