Fostering a strengthened, effective and efficient United Nations
Statement by Richard Croker, UK Minister-Counsellor at the UN, at the Closing of the First Resumed Session of the Fifth Committee of the 75th General Assembly
From:
Mr Chair,
Firstly, let me begin by thanking you, and the members of the Bureau, for directing the work of the Committee this session. Let me also thank Mr Lionelito Berridge and the members of the Fifth Committee Secretariat for guiding delegations through this session, and for their quick turnaround of documents in order to give the committee the best chance of concluding resolutions. Lastly, my thanks once again to all our colleagues, and particularly those who continue to work without interpretation as we adjust our methods in response to the pandemic.
The new fee will be levied on the ‘relevant income’ at an annual 1% rate.
A subscription to Netflix was among the items which topped many Christmas wish-lists in December 2020, which was in line with the trend of the ever-increasing migration towards digital entertainment. Thus, it is perhaps of no surprise to see global tax policies attempting to keep pace with this shift.
The ‘Netflix tax’, as it has been labelled, is coming to Portugal and other countries. It emerged as an amendment to the Cinema and Audiovisual Act, transposing the recast Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AMSD). The Act had already imposed investment obligations on media service providers and specific levies and fees to foster the development of the cinema and the audiovisual sectors. Through the amendments, it creates an annual subscription fee for on-demand audiovisual services targeting on-demand audiovisual services providers, namely video-on-demand (VoD) and streaming services providers (which