Netflix Taxation, good or bad?

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amélie maheux and lauralie grenon

The debate of Netflix taxation started before the last federal election and  is now bringing reactions. What is the debate for?

In Canada, Netflix local competitors are paying tax to the government but not Netflix. Because of that, our local industries are at a disadvantage because they have to abide by the law. But if Netflix is taxed, it will be  the users who will pay the price. The absence of the Netflix tax represents a significant loss  for our federal government of approximately hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to finance Canadian productions.

But on October 10, Netflix reacted about the issue and said “we don’t have to pay tax in the actual state of Canadian laws”. Netflix added that the augmentation of prices recently announced, doesn’t have any link with the investment of 500 million dollars that they will spend in Canadian productions, like it is said in le journal de Montréal. Since they are diffusing some foreign content, they are not registered by the same laws then the Canadian industry and it’s why they don’t have the obligation to apply a tax.

The american giant replied to the ones who said that they obtained a special treatment that they are not an online service and not a network either. Should the Canadian government revise the laws or keep the taxation the way it is?

(written by: Lauralie Grenon and Amélie Maheux; edited by: Zackary G. Tremblay)