Top 12 weirdest tax rules around the world

Countries across the globe have justified deductions, extra percentages, and wacky ways of coming up with tax revenue. Here's a countdown of the 12 strangest tax laws around the world.

10. France: Google tax

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
Google has come under fire in France and Spain because of its privacy settings for user data.

Europe is relatively more protective of privacy than the US, which has often led to more controls on tech companies. However, compounded with the economic crisis, European countries are more likely than ever  to go after big tech companies who they say are making revenue off their citizens without paying due taxes. These taxes are largely known as “Google taxes”, though they apply to any large Internet-based company.

France has been the most outspoken nation in attempting to tax Internet companies like brick-and-mortar companies. Previously France contemplated a "culture tax" on smart phones and tablets made by Google and other tech companies in hopes of gaining revenue for a cultural fund.

The most recent iteration of the Google tax is France’s assertion that the company owes the country $1.35 billion in back taxes for circumventing the tax laws by diverting much of its French revenue to Ireland (where there are lower taxes). Google's Paris offices reported its revenue was $260.53 million in 2011, while analysts believe revenue was more like $1.89 billion.

After revelations of NSA spying, on top of suspicious tax moves, it’s likely that France and large Internet companies will be sparring financially for years to come.

3 of 12

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.