Poland Announces Digital Services Tax That Could Hit Apple

[MacRumors]

Poland's government has announced plans to begin drafting legislation to impose a tax of up to 3% on revenues from certain digital services, a move that could affect Apple and other major U.S. tech companies operating in the country.

Reuters reports that Deputy Prime Minister and Digitalization Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski announced the decision on Tuesday, describing it as an effort to ensure fair competition between domestic businesses and large foreign digital platforms.

Today, competition in the digital market in Poland is distorted. Companies that pay taxes on their activities in Poland are in a worse position than those that provide digital services within our country from abroad. This reduces the competitiveness of domestic entities, limits our digital sovereignty, and significantly reduces state budget revenues that could be reinvested in building our country's technological potential.

The bill would tax companies that earn money from targeted online ads, platforms where users connect or buy and sell, and selling user data. It would only affect companies making over €1 billion globally and more than $6.79 million in Poland per year.

Based on that language, Apple services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Books, Apple Podcasts, and its growing advertising business could fall within scope. At the same time, the draft includes broad exemptions, such as digital interfaces whose "sole or main purpose" is delivering content owned by the provider or for which it holds distribution rights, as well as online stores where the seller is not acting as an intermediary. Apple could potentially argue that some of its services qualify for those carve-outs, though the draft's language leaves considerable room for interpretation.

Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon would also likely be subject to the tax if the bill passes as written. Poland's digital tax push comes just months after the European Commission reversed its own plans for a similar digital levy.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Poland Announces Digital Services Tax That Could Hit Apple

 

[Matthew.H]

This crap never does anything except cost the end consumer more money as companies will always pass on the costs.

 

[gaximus]

Today, competition in the digital market in Poland is distorted. Companies that pay taxes on their activities in Poland are in a worse position than those that provide digital services within our country from abroad. This reduces the competitiveness of domestic entities, limits our digital sovereignty, and significantly reduces state budget revenues that could be reinvested in building our country's technological potential.

​

We want more money, and you some we can take.

 

[Happy_John]

This could be good, but it is likely not to happen, as the Polish President ( who is strongly pro-Trump) can veto legislation made by government, and the Polish government and president are on opposite sides of the fence, and refuse to work together on any issue, irrespective of whether it benefits the country or not.

 

[CapitalIdea]

That’s fine. Just pass the cost on to the consumers, and label it as the tax that it is. If people want to pay for it, they can’t complain. If they don’t want to pay for it, they can use some polish service and be happy there.

 

[Happy_John]

That’s fine. Just pass the cost on to the consumers, and label it as the tax that it is. If people want to pay for it, they can’t complain. If they don’t want to pay for it, they can use some polish service and be happy there.

Why it might be good is that it would promote the development of some homegrown services.

 

[B4U]

And who is paying for the tax at the end?

Think sales tax. 🥲

 

[surferfb]

These sorts of things would be a lot more defensible if they had them apply to all companies operating in Poland rather than only companies "making over €1 billion globally and more than $6.79 million in Poland." That's just using foreign companies as a piggy bank.

If it's good enough for American companies it should be good enough for Polish ones too.

 

[andrewxgx]

This crap never does anything except cost the end consumer more money as companies will always pass on the costs.

the target here are ad networks (ie. facebook, google), that take vast amount of money from local companies, and pay close to no taxes on their local revenue.

best to my knowledge, it might affect App Store revenue from ads, but not from app sales (ie. zero impact on pricing for users)

 

[Happy_John]

And who is paying for the tax at the end?

Think sales tax. 🥲

That's the "money in", but whether it is good or not comes down to where that money goes out to.

 

[WilliApple]

Sooooo Poland is going to force Apple to hike prices...
After Apple Music flexxed that they are cheaper than Spotify...
Please Trump, do something. (so that prices dont go up for americans, not because I like him)

 

[turbineseaplane]

Sooooo Poland is going to force Apple to hike prices...
After Apple Music flexxed that they are cheaper than Spotify...
Please Trump, do something. (so that prices dont go up for americans, not because I like him)

Trump is doing an amazing job at raising prices for Americans. I’m not sure why you would think he’s going to somehow reverse that here.

 

[Mr. Nice]

This crap never does anything except cost the end consumer more money as companies will always pass on the costs.

Exactly—we should just exempt companies from taxes entirely so they can rake in even more billions in profits and make the Zuckerbergs, Bezos, and the rest even richer. 🙄

Please stop with the fairy tale of the trickle-down effect. 🥳🥳🥳

Does anyone here really believe that, as an end customer, you’d get lower prices without taxation?🤣🤣🤣

No, the company would simply pocket the current price in full. 🎊

 

[turbineseaplane]

Please stop with the fairy tale of the trickle-down effect. 🥳🥳🥳

Does anyone here really believe that, as an end customer, you’d get lower prices without taxation?🤣🤣🤣

Neoliberal ideology dies very hard

 

[Gloor]

The amount of taxes companies pay compared to average employee is laughable. What EU should do in general is to apply flat rate as a base and then brackets where you can use creative accounting but the flat rate wouldn't be touched. If we had income as Apple (for example) as employees we would pay around 55% or so in taxes and yet Apple does single digits (i believe).
Tax system shouldn't reward the rich and creative whilst punishing 'normal' people (mostly middle class gets hit the hardest)

 

[surfzen21]

If you need to increase your military budget which Poland has over the last 3 years from a little over 2% of GDP to a proposed almost 5% of GDP either this year or next, you need to bring that money in somehow.

Seems reasonable at a 35,000 ft view.

 

[pbau]

Well, Apple still did not deliver their full services despite charging full price.
No Iphone Mirroring, no Siri in local language, no official Store.

A tax that hit those multi-billion companies like Apple and MS is long due in EU.

 

[tomtad]

Hit em hard Poland

 

[MacLawyer]

🙄I'm sure Poland has many domestic businesses that compete with Apple and Google.

 

[MacBH928]

Exactly—we should just exempt companies from taxes entirely so they can rake in even more billions in profits and make the Zuckerbergs, Bezos, and the rest even richer. 🙄

Please stop with the fairy tale of the trickle-down effect. 🥳🥳🥳

Does anyone here really believe that, as an end customer, you’d get lower prices without taxation?🤣🤣🤣

No, the company would simply pocket the current price in full. 🎊

wrong.

Competitors will lower their prices to attract customers, and will force other players in the market to lower their prices. In addition, in the software world, you can always opt for the FOSS app which is completely free which will force software vendors to decrease prices as their customer base dwindles and choose FOSS.

 

[ypl]

Hit em hard Poland

Will not happen. President will veto the proposed law for 2 reasons: 1/ he's very pro-MAGA (and the law hits US companies the most), 2/ he hates the ruling coalition.

 

[BaldiMac]

wrong.

Competitors will lower their prices to attract customers, and will force other players in the market to lower their prices. In addition, in the software world, you can always opt for the FOSS app which is completely free which will force software vendors to decrease prices as their customer base dwindles and choose FOSS.

And yet prices are up significantly since corporate taxes were cut in the US in 2018.

 

[uacd]

If it increases prices for the end customers they will most likely stop paying for digital services, this way or the other. Piracy will shine again, economy will be slowing down significantly from now and beyond due to global challenges and especially thanks to oil prices which will not go below if war in Iran continues

 

[Dead0k]

yeah more taxes for everybody...

 

[jole]

This crap never does anything except cost the end consumer more money as companies will always pass on the costs.

Absolutely right. Poland has 0 domestic competition to those services, thus this is just a tax on their own citizens who will have no alternatives.