Don’t have an IT subscription so what’s this about?
> The government will move this week to block the Coimisiun na Mean from imposing a so-called Netflix levy on streamers, in response to concerns that it will be deeply unpopular with the public.
> Patrick O’Donovan, the minister for culture and arts, is expected to bring a memo to cabinet on Tuesday to prevent the media regulator from imposing a content levy without government approval.
> The levy would apply on streaming services operating in the Irish market, with the groundwork for the plans laid out by the previous government.
Deeply unpopular is putting it mildly; Netflix is already outrageously priced without an arbitrary levy attached.
Independent Productions for RTE?
I could be wrong but if you can afford Netflix you can afford a 3% tariff.
Do people really pay Irish price for Netflix 😂😂😂 and if you do not pay Irish price then then cant charge you levy on it
Easy, lower the TV licence by €20, impose the levy, sorted. Oh wait, the TV licence is still being used to prop up RTÉ and it’ll only keep going up because they don’t know how to run their own organisation.
Yeah, probably best he dropped it.
“How else can we ride the public?”
When will politicians stop making stupid laws and introducing new taxes just for the sake of it. Collect the license fee that already exists and there would be no need for this.
Some quick sums on this.
If every person in Ireland (5,000,000) had a subscription costing €10 per month (€120 per year) a 3% levy would bring in about €18 million a year.
€18 million is an absolutle pittance in the grand scheme of things and the true figure is likely much lower because not everyone has a subscription.
We already pay VAT on subscriptions so if CnM really need the finding it can be taken from general taxation as a portion of the VAT paid on subscriptions.
The immediate reason for blocking the levy is probably mostly about diplomacy and trade policy. The Government is trying to block or moderate implementation of measures under the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) to protect the country from the desire of large EU states and the European Commission to disembowel the FDI technology sector, and to make it less likely that Ireland will get further hammered by US tariffs. Under current circumstances, this levy would infuriate the US, and would effectively form a part of implementation of the ACI. Attributing the policy change to the unpopularity of the proposed levy is just a polite fiction.
This is typical of the civil service taking a sensible idea and getting it wrong.
In the wake of the fallout from the RTE scandal, there were a lot of good suggestions on how to modernise the licence fee. One of the best ones came from industry types which was to impose a ~~tarrif/~~tax/levy on _streamers_ (note, not the subscribers) for allowing operation in Ireland and this would go to reduce the licence fee.
In other words, Netflix/Amazon/Disney/Now etc etc should be paying this, not the subscriber
I don’t think we should be targeting any specific industry with shit like this but I’d quite like if we had some sort of carrot on a stick more for high quality productions in Ireland that contributes back locally rather than just being a film location would be really good. I know some European countries did similar where they required a certain proportion of their library has to be locally produced or something and I know we have tax breaks and stuff but it feels like we could do better.
This all seems stupid and perhaps they should be doing something smarter
This is another Green Party inspired mess that the government is cleaning up after the election. The massive rejection of the ideologically radical extremists masquerading as “environmentalists,” by the electorate was proof that we do not accept arbitrary charges imposed on us by our rulers simply because “they know better.”
Kinda hypocritical to complain about US tariffs when they’ve been doing the same to Irish consumers for years – constant new and permanent taxes, levies, import duties, and other charges on top of VAT and all the other taxes we already pay. Feck off and come up with a policy or measure that doesn’t just involve slapping more tax on everything.
In the current climate, it would be potentially very problematic for Ireland to move on its own in a levy on tech companies that isn’t fully coordinated with the EU.
What would very likely happen is Netflix and other streamers will make a complaint to the United States Department of Commerce and it would be highlighted as a trade barrier and next thing you’d have the spotlight on Ireland in a way you really don’t want it in the middle of this tariffs levying campaign.
I doubt it has anything to do with being potentially ‘deeply unpopular with the public’. It’s far more likely about avoiding diplomatic and economic consequences. The absolute last thing the government needs at the moment is to put itself into the spotlight over what is in the big picture of things a minor domestic issue.
If the EU wants to move collectively on a digital services levy it has the scale to do that. Ireland moving on something to plug a hole in the TV licence, given what’s going on internationally, would be diplomatically misstepping to put it mildly.
Like fucking hell, calling this an unpopular move is an understatement. Tv licence money is squandered and the content is shit, if you don’t even watch RTE you still need a licence which you pay for and now they want a levy on other content that they have nothing to do with. Won’t be enough fire sticks in the country if this went ahead as everyone would just get dodgy boxes and pay the fine if they were ever caught.
A fucking content levy on top of a TV license fee. Are these gobshites deluded???
18 comments
Don’t have an IT subscription so what’s this about?
> The government will move this week to block the Coimisiun na Mean from imposing a so-called Netflix levy on streamers, in response to concerns that it will be deeply unpopular with the public.
> Patrick O’Donovan, the minister for culture and arts, is expected to bring a memo to cabinet on Tuesday to prevent the media regulator from imposing a content levy without government approval.
> The levy would apply on streaming services operating in the Irish market, with the groundwork for the plans laid out by the previous government.
Deeply unpopular is putting it mildly; Netflix is already outrageously priced without an arbitrary levy attached.
Independent Productions for RTE?
I could be wrong but if you can afford Netflix you can afford a 3% tariff.
Do people really pay Irish price for Netflix 😂😂😂 and if you do not pay Irish price then then cant charge you levy on it
Easy, lower the TV licence by €20, impose the levy, sorted. Oh wait, the TV licence is still being used to prop up RTÉ and it’ll only keep going up because they don’t know how to run their own organisation.
Yeah, probably best he dropped it.
“How else can we ride the public?”
When will politicians stop making stupid laws and introducing new taxes just for the sake of it. Collect the license fee that already exists and there would be no need for this.
Some quick sums on this.
If every person in Ireland (5,000,000) had a subscription costing €10 per month (€120 per year) a 3% levy would bring in about €18 million a year.
€18 million is an absolutle pittance in the grand scheme of things and the true figure is likely much lower because not everyone has a subscription.
We already pay VAT on subscriptions so if CnM really need the finding it can be taken from general taxation as a portion of the VAT paid on subscriptions.
The immediate reason for blocking the levy is probably mostly about diplomacy and trade policy. The Government is trying to block or moderate implementation of measures under the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) to protect the country from the desire of large EU states and the European Commission to disembowel the FDI technology sector, and to make it less likely that Ireland will get further hammered by US tariffs. Under current circumstances, this levy would infuriate the US, and would effectively form a part of implementation of the ACI. Attributing the policy change to the unpopularity of the proposed levy is just a polite fiction.
This is typical of the civil service taking a sensible idea and getting it wrong.
In the wake of the fallout from the RTE scandal, there were a lot of good suggestions on how to modernise the licence fee. One of the best ones came from industry types which was to impose a ~~tarrif/~~tax/levy on _streamers_ (note, not the subscribers) for allowing operation in Ireland and this would go to reduce the licence fee.
In other words, Netflix/Amazon/Disney/Now etc etc should be paying this, not the subscriber
I don’t think we should be targeting any specific industry with shit like this but I’d quite like if we had some sort of carrot on a stick more for high quality productions in Ireland that contributes back locally rather than just being a film location would be really good. I know some European countries did similar where they required a certain proportion of their library has to be locally produced or something and I know we have tax breaks and stuff but it feels like we could do better.
This all seems stupid and perhaps they should be doing something smarter
This is another Green Party inspired mess that the government is cleaning up after the election. The massive rejection of the ideologically radical extremists masquerading as “environmentalists,” by the electorate was proof that we do not accept arbitrary charges imposed on us by our rulers simply because “they know better.”
Kinda hypocritical to complain about US tariffs when they’ve been doing the same to Irish consumers for years – constant new and permanent taxes, levies, import duties, and other charges on top of VAT and all the other taxes we already pay. Feck off and come up with a policy or measure that doesn’t just involve slapping more tax on everything.
In the current climate, it would be potentially very problematic for Ireland to move on its own in a levy on tech companies that isn’t fully coordinated with the EU.
What would very likely happen is Netflix and other streamers will make a complaint to the United States Department of Commerce and it would be highlighted as a trade barrier and next thing you’d have the spotlight on Ireland in a way you really don’t want it in the middle of this tariffs levying campaign.
I doubt it has anything to do with being potentially ‘deeply unpopular with the public’. It’s far more likely about avoiding diplomatic and economic consequences. The absolute last thing the government needs at the moment is to put itself into the spotlight over what is in the big picture of things a minor domestic issue.
If the EU wants to move collectively on a digital services levy it has the scale to do that. Ireland moving on something to plug a hole in the TV licence, given what’s going on internationally, would be diplomatically misstepping to put it mildly.
Like fucking hell, calling this an unpopular move is an understatement. Tv licence money is squandered and the content is shit, if you don’t even watch RTE you still need a licence which you pay for and now they want a levy on other content that they have nothing to do with. Won’t be enough fire sticks in the country if this went ahead as everyone would just get dodgy boxes and pay the fine if they were ever caught.
A fucking content levy on top of a TV license fee. Are these gobshites deluded???
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