A coalition comprised of 45 Canadian media organizations has requested a meeting with federal Minister of Finance Bill Morneau to discuss taxing online media.
In a media release issued on January 16, 2018, the Coalition for Culture and Media (CCM) stated that it “considers it inconceivable that the Trudeau government… continues to ignore the amount in lost revenue by not taxing electronic trade.”
“The Coalition for Culture and Media has requested a meeting with Finance Minister Bill Morneau as soon as possible in order to inform him of the challenges caused by competing foreign companies operating online in the cultural and media sectors,” reads an excerpt from the January release. “The Coalition hopes to remind him that it is not too late to announce a concrete action plan and reverse this trend before the next budget.”
The CCM published a declaration espousing the importance of better regulating online media, in September 2017. The coalition specifically mentioned Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Spotify — as well as the technology and digital services they provide — in its declaration. “The popularity of the devices and services has adversely affected the revenue share generated by Canadian cultural and information content,” reads an excerpt from the CCM’s declaration. “Creators, producers, publishers and distributors no longer reap the majority of the return on their investments.”
In the past, organizations have proposed introducing a levy on streaming services dubbed the ‘Netflix Tax.’ In reality, the term doesn’t refer to one particular tax, but rather several potential forms of taxation or contribution.
This article was originally published on MobileSyrup