It would make more sense if EU countries would make laws that extend normal VAT to all internet business in EU and close all Irish loopholes. Google and others use Irish tax arrangement schemes like "The Double Irish" (base erosion and profit shifting), the Single Malt, and CAIA to avoid paying taxes.
12 EU states reject move to expose companies' tax avoidance https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/28/12-eu-state...
Primarily the new rules are based on the existing UK rules and I'm guessing whatever legal changes were required are still going through.
Most matters are done under qualified majority - which is a small super-majority based on population.
A post-Brexit UK going full on offshore tax haven might encourage the EU to get their act together on finance, and come up with some ways to crack down. Well, one can hope...
So Spain can act now, or wait a few more decades...
I send the VAT money to my government every month. If I didn't have to do that it would be my profit. "The customer pays" rhetoric doesn't hold water. Customers don't care how much of the price is the tax. They make their buying decision based on sticker value.
If your competitors didn’t have to do that either there would be pressure on prices and a new price would be set by demand/supply.
When VAT changes (usually increasing) if doesn’t just affect profits. It also affects prices (to what extent and how rapidly depends on many factors).
This represents a case of perfectly elastic demand. No matter how taxes change, the price the advertiser is going to bid never changes and thus all taxes will be off burdened onto google and facebooks margin until obviously the point where the would lose money and then shut it off but that's unlikely to happen.
khan academy article on elasticity and tax revenue: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microec...
These companies show their profits in places like Bermuda (British Overseas Territory) Ireland, or Luxembourg and use all kinds of schemes and special arrangements to reduce them.