by Chris Black
The law is absurd, and no one should comply with this.
You can’t charge foreign companies because they offer internet services.
I’m totally against porno, and think it should be illegal everywhere (it actually is illegal in the Ukraine, but the law isn’t enforced).
But I support PornHub’s refusal to pay some international VAT to the Ukies.
RT:
Ukraine has fined Canadian adult content giant PornHub $5,543 for refusing to pay taxes in the country and by extension failing to support the national armed forces, a senior MP has reported.
Daniil Getmantsev, the chair of the parliamentary committee for financial affairs, reported the penalty imposed by the Ukrainian tax service on Monday on social media. He contrasted PornHub’s fiscal irresponsibility to the discipline of OnlyFans, a site catering to adult content producers. It paid over $944,000 in taxes in Ukraine in 2023, the MP noted.
“Every penny under the so-called ‘tax on Google’ goes to financing the needs of our army, and Ukraine is rated 14th among other nations in user views,” Getmantsev stressed.
The ‘tax on Google’ was introduced in Ukraine in 2021. Foreign companies providing e-services to residents and earning over a certain threshold are required to register as taxpayers under a special procedure and pay added value tax.
The ranking cited by the MP came from PornHub itself, which published its end-of-the-year report last week. Ukraine was among the top 20 nations in terms of traffic.