[MarkMc]

It depends how you define profit, and to me this is absolutely about taxing revenues instead of profit.

I see profit as the 'value added' by a particular activity. At least 90% of the value created by Google, Facebook and Apple was created in California. Therefore the vast majority of worldwide income generated by these companies should be subject to the tax rates that apply in California - not Ireland, not Germany, not Spain. So Google, etc should be paying more tax - but they should be paying it to the US government, not the EU. If there is ever an EU Silicon Valley then the EU can tax the worldwide profit of those EU companies.

Personally I would like to see a rule that intellectual property is fixed to the place where it is produced and forever taxed in that jurisdiction - just like land. If you write a book or develop a new drug or software then that IP stays where it was developed.

[zdkl]

> At least 90% of the value created by Google, Facebook and Apple was created in California.

I'm trying not to be snarky but I need to say wtf.

FB & google don't make money from IP, they make money as service providers, connecting merchants on the advertisement hype train to our eyeballs.

They take money from local and transnational businesses, and present ads, aggregation and search services to individual, local, users.

How is this California related profits when I see ads for $smallbusiness in my french town? Because they host the servers there? Please. To be fair I'd concede Amazon may be different with regards to where the value they create resides but I'm sure you'll feel the same way I do when the tech giants step away from Silicon valley and it looses the sweet sweet techmonies.

This not about IP rights, corporate liberties or socialism, it's about realising when you're defending the fire that's roasting you. 'Cause google and fb don't give a F about US vs EU further than how they can leverage them to lower operating costs.

[kretor]

Seems like you are thinking the value is created by customers, while the GP thinks it is created by employees.

[sgt101]

Was it the farmer or the field? The fella that used to farm here wasn't so efficient or modern, but he paid the lord of the manors tithe, the new person is growing lots of new things, she's selling them cheap in the market.

Her toys are nicer than the family who live at the manor have ever seen, let alone owned.

She's kind of a loud mouth, keeps telling the peasants and the Baronial family that they need to change, that their ideas about life, culture and fairness are all wrong.

How does this story end.?We note that the Barons have swords, pikes, bows and arrows, a long track record of setting fire to houses and decorating them by hanging up the occupants. Perhaps though, this time, they'll simply chillax and go to the seminars that the new woman is running.

If they use option a. I expect that the next peasant in charge of the farm will be much less ostentatious, opinionated and will adopt all of the shiny new practices introduced by the last farmer. They probably won't invent many new ones... but then again are there lots of new ones to be invented now?

[zdkl]

What value do facebook developers create directly? They have crafted a network of complementary services for which I don't deny their craftsmanship, but would you argue the developers are the core business instead of the interaction between users and their product?