UK Government could tax tech giants more to fund universal pay
MPs are considering taxing tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Apple to deliver universal basic income of £10,000 to every UK citizen under 55.
The measure could be introduced due to the growing fear of Britons facing to lose their jobs to robots and AI in the coming years. The Bank of England estimates there could be up to 15m job losses due to automation.
The Royal Society of Arts has warned that almost 50% of people in the UK have less than £1,000 saved and a third are at risk of a financial shock.
These new funds could enable citizens to broaden their education and take training courses. Although the UBI would cost the government an amount of money that it can’t afford by itself and would burden the country with extra debt.
As a solution to this, The RSA has proposed the government new taxes on tech giants, wealth taxes or borrowing money from financial markets to create a fund to pay for this income.
The taxes on tech giants would apply to those companies like Facebook or Apple that make vast profits accessing UK resident’s data.
The idea for the program would be to grant £5,000 per year for two years and could cost the government £14.5bn a year over a decade.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Donald Trump “feels very strongly” about implementing tax on internet sales, says Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Amazon is one of the companies that could be affected if Trump decides to go through with the plan.
Nowadays in the US, retailers only collect sales tax in states where they have great physical presence. Currently the US Supreme Court is revisiting the 1992 ruling that banned the tax.
Amazon avoids paying taxes when the consumers buy from one of its third-party vendors which make up about half of the company’s volume.