Hungary’s Govt Mulls Taxing Social Media

  • 4 Jun 2014 9:00 AM
Hungary’s Govt Mulls Taxing Social Media
The bill on introducing a tax on advertisements is just an “overture” which could also see social networking sites included in the new regime, Fidesz lawmaker László L Simon said in a radio interview to public Kossuth Rádió.

 He noted many people including politicians regularly advertise on Facebook and targeted ads appear on YouTube. He also cited the example of Google and how it “delivers concrete information for money.”

These companies have major income from ads on which they do not pay VAT, corporate income tax to Hungary’s coffers, he said. Simon submitted the bill on the ad tax which applies to media companies to parliament on Monday.

Companies with up to half a billion forints of ad revenue will not be affected by the tax while anything above 20 billion forints will be taxed at 40%.

The legislation targets tax revenues already this year. Various companies and professional associations, representing advertisers, newspaper publishers, radio broadcasters and media content providers, have protested against the planned measures, saying the tax endangered press freedom.
 
Source www.hungarymatters.hu 
 
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