Query in Perplexity: fact check. does the eu recieve more in fines for us tech copanies than it raises in tax from eu based tech companies No, the EU does not receive more in fines from US tech companies than it raises in tax from EU-based tech companies. Fines from US tech giants like Google (over $8 billion total), Apple (€13 billion back taxes to Ireland plus recent €500-584 million penalties), Meta (€233-200 million), and X (€120-140 million) have cumulatively reached several billion euros since 2016, primarily under antitrust, DSA, and tax recovery rules.[1][2][3][4][5] In contrast, tax revenues from EU-based tech firms and digital activities far exceed these fines. EU digital services taxes (DSTs) in countries like France, Spain, Italy, and the UK—typically 3-5% on targeted revenues—generate hundreds of millions annually from large firms, with UK DST alone yielding €416 million in one year from 18 companies.[6] Broader corporate income tax (CIT) and VAT from the EU tech sector contribute tens of billions yearly; a proposed 5% EU-wide DST could raise €37.5 billion by 2026, nearly 19% of the EU budget, while actual CIT collections dwarf fines.[7][8][9][10] ## Key Comparison | Category | Approximate Scale | Notes | |----------|------------------|-------| | Fines from US Tech | €15-20+ billion (cumulative 2016-2025) | Mostly one-off antitrust/tax recoveries; annual flow <€2-3B [1][11] | | Tax from EU Tech/Digital | €10s of billions annually | Ongoing CIT, VAT, DSTs; digital firms pay ~9.5-15% effective rates but volume is high [7][12][6] | Direct comparisons are challenging due to fines being irregular versus steady taxes, but taxes consistently outpace fines by orders of magnitude.[11][13] Citations: [1] EU hits Elon Musk's X with $140 million fine over business ... https://www.npr.org/2025/12/05/nx-s1-5634694/x-musk-eu-fines [2] Europe's battle with Big Tech: billions in fines and tough laws https://www.mpa.co.uk/news-insights/news/europes-battle-with-big-tech-billions-in-fines-and-tough-laws/ [3] Apple and Meta attack 'unfair' €700m EU fines https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm248vzg9jwo [4] EU strikes a blow against Apple and Google in landmark ... https://techinformed.com/eu-rulings-apple-google-antitrust-taxes/ [5] EU hits X with €120 million fine over breaking digital rules https://www.dw.com/en/eu-imposes-120-million-fine-on-elon-musks-x-for-breaking-digital-rules/a-75033724 [6] Digital Service Taxes https://www.taxobservatory.eu/www-site/uploads/2023/06/EUTO_Digital-Service-Taxes_June2023.pdf [7] EU holds back on taxing US Big Tech https://euobserver.com/digital/arb99e5fa7 [8] TOWARDS A EUROPEAN DIGITAL SERVICES TAX https://www.ecmi.eu/sites/default/files/2025_04_fmi-toward-a-european-digital-tax-1.pdf [9] Big Tech, small taxes: Europe debates on the taxation of ... https://euperspectives.eu/2025/09/big-tech-small-taxes-europe/ [10] European Commission presents Annual Report on Taxation https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/news/european-commission-presents-annual-report-taxation-2025-06-24_en [11] Is a billion-dollar tech fine really a tariff in disguise? https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2025/03/13/is-a-billion-dollar-tech-fine-really-a-tariff-in-disguise-00229088 [12] Can Big Tech be taxed more? The true, the false and ... https://www.polytechnique-insights.com/en/columns/digital/can-gafams-be-taxed-more-the-true-the-false-and-the-uncertain/ [13] EU Digital Regulations are Costing U.S. Tech Firms ... https://ccianet.org/news/2025/03/eu-digital-regulations-are-costing-u-s-tech-firms-billions-annually/ [14] European Parliament targets Big Tech with new cross- ... https://brusselssignal.eu/2025/11/european-parliament-targets-big-tech-with-new-cross-border-tax/ [15] Digital Services Taxes DST global tracker https://www.vatcalc.com/global/digital-services-taxes-dst-global-tracker/ [16] EU Digital Services Tax https://www.cliffordchance.com/content/dam/cliffordchance/PDFDocuments/eu-digital-services-tax-clifford-chance-client-briefing.pdf [17] From Digital Taxation to CORE: Europe's Obsession with ... https://ecipe.org/blog/from-digital-taxation-to-core/ [18] Big Tech and Digital Taxation reforms in the EU and MENA https://www.euromesco.net/publication/big-tech-and-digital-taxation-reforms-in-the-eu-and-mena/ [19] State of play of Digital Services Taxes (DSTs) and other ... https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/tax/newsletters/tax-policy-bulletin/assets/pwc-state-of-play-of-dsts-and-other-similar-measures.pdf

*The missing piece is a more developed discovery ecosystem. A Nostr client acting as a crawler, an indexer, and a curator could build the needed visibility layer. Some early versions exist, but nothing has yet become the widely used tool for this*

When you can run a business through which you maintain your desired quality of life.

Are you referring to the 4 year cycle being maintained?

Ditto on Android Nostur on Apple

*what we call "gains" are often just an optical illusion of currency debasement. High asset prices are merely the receipts for fiat printing*

*on balance, the organic, regenerative farm that is ...Nostr .... beats the degenerate slums of... “X”*

*that's why I'm so interested in building better protocol bridges, because eventually people will realize that Nostr is the "final destination."*

*the “merit” being tested is one’s ability to follow. It’s a test of one’s ability to pick up on what the current culture values and emulate that effectively. It’s a test of your trendiness and ability to curry favor with others*

"The entire AI stack has usage-based COGS, from APIs down to the GPU infrastructure layer, which means that AI businesses often turn to usage-based pricing to keep their margins consistent," https://www.perplexity.ai/page/stripe-buys-metronome-for-1b-t-8MNNE6ZxRB6RZUXBOGoI6g

*I think the silver lining is most people think through a consensus filter, they have no principles or understanding beyond their own survival, so run with the herd. Bitcoiners being multi-disciplinary are an intransigent herd, they don't break off into other herds even if those other herds are bigger. Their numbers are therefore a one-way-ratchet, and the size of that herd compounds on itself... eventually attracting people on scale alone.* https://stacker.news/items/1313012/r/halalmoney?commentId=1313205

*Art needs a medium that matches its intent and integrity... when the medium is aligned with the message, the message will inevitably thrive*

*The World Bank even refers to "monetary substitution," with citizens in some countries starting to use USD stablecoins to the detriment of their own currency. Usage is exploding in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, where populations are seeking a local alternative that is more stable than their national currency. If a large part of economic activity is conducted using foreign stablecoins, central banks lose control over interest rates, liquidity, and their monetary sovereignty.*

https://stacker.news/items/1312261/r/halalmoney

*Build systems that pay it forward, not lock it down*

*it forces you to ask, why we use these labels at all. Are we critiquing behaviour, or simply reacting to discomfort with someone’s beliefs?* https://stacker.news/items/1309318/r/halalmoney?commentId=1310133

*the legacy internet is not built for authenticity. It is built for extraction. Hidden algorithms push narratives, outrage, fear, and distraction. People think they are choosing, but they are being steered. Sometimes for profit. Sometimes for power*

*many of our best memes comes from Bitcoin haters* https://stacker.news/items/1309318/r/halalmoney?commentId=1309593

https://stacker.news/items/1311052/r/halalmoney

Threat Level Paradox *As implied by the Zero Sum Property, presumably the only way to defeat external subsidy is to mine at a capital loss relative to market return on capital. Similarly it seems that only way to defeat tax, up to and including a 100% tax (prohibition), is to mine beyond the reach of the taxing authority, such as in secret. As with all black markets there is an increased cost to subversive mining. Competing against subsidized mining compounds the cost. If one accepts the Axiom of Resistance one must assume that both tax and subsidy will be used to reduce the cost of controlling Bitcoin. Using the power to subsidize mining (via tax revenues), states can cause pooling in the region of the subsidy. Once majority hash power is focused the state can use its taxing (regulatory) power in the region to compel censorship. Therefore in order to enjoy the benefits of a hard currency, it would seem that people will ultimately have to mine at a loss. However, censorship creates the opportunity for others to mine profitably to the extent that people are willing to offset this cost with fees. This black market is Bitcoin's censorship resistance. People pay a higher price for certain transactions, and in order to maintain that higher price the state must also suffer the expense, despite its ineffectiveness. Paradoxically, this tool works well when money is under attack and poorly otherwise. If there was no internal pooling pressure these cases would be balanced. But risk distribution is essential to subversive mining, and pooling pressure works against distribution. So there is ever-expanding attack surface with no pressure to contract unless effective monetary alternatives are suppressed. The suppression of alternatives raises reward utility to the miner in the region of suppression. The paradox applies as well to centralization pressures. The expected consequence is that Bitcoin will not be well prepared for attacks because it is financially disadvantageous for people in a low threat environment.* https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin-system/wiki/Threat-Level-Paradox

*Helm, the Oxford professor, argues renewable energy will remain more expensive than fossil fuels because the overall system is more cumbersome. The U.K. used to meet its electricity demand with 60-70 gigawatts of power capacity. Now, the country requires twice as much capacity, 120 gigawatts, to meet slightly lower demand—not to mention the additional storage facilities and interconnector supplies to and from continental Europe.* https://stacker.news/items/1307594/r/halalmoney

*Purely technical people, lacking multi-disciplinary traits, are Bitcoin's greatest liability. They fail to recognize its value is from being a paragon of stability and relative simplicity, and so they're always seeking to change it... fortunately they fail more often than not due to a design meant to resist them, and end up shitcoiners.* https://stacker.news/items/1313012/r/halalmoney?commentId=1313205

*For a tired, jaded and in many cases impoverished electorate, MMT appears to offer a route out of the era of endless pessimism delivered by the mainstream parties. But as Panmure’s French argues, even MMT cannot defy the economic laws of gravity forever. One day, sure as night and day, all those trillions of pounds of debts do have to be paid back.* https://apple.news/Ahcd56g-nQVe5uc7xk85H6Q

Melting ice cube reserve https://stacker.news/items/1297240/r/halalmoney

Via perplexity: Anthropic is indeed moving down the stack with Bun, but the pattern looks more like an AI-first developer platform where Claude and agents control the toolchain, rather than a full AWS clone. Profitability challenges exist, but Anthropic is already hitting multibillion-dollar run-rate revenue with improving economics, making Bun a play for leverage and lock-in. Bun provides a JavaScript runtime, package manager, bundler, and test runner—all key plumbing for JS development. Anthropic standardized on it for Claude Code, then acquired the company as Claude Code reached a billion-dollar annualized run rate. This lets them control agent execution, ship optimized single-file executables, and steer Bun's roadmap toward enterprise AI stickiness. Anthropic's business is services-heavy: high single-digit billions in 2025 revenue, mostly from enterprise API contracts and integrations, with gross margins improving via cheaper inference and scaling code products. They're on track for profitability faster than some rivals, thanks to committed enterprise spend. They're not becoming a full cloud provider yet—they rely on massive commitments from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia for infrastructure. Bun fits at the agent runtime layer, enabling an opinionated stack of Claude tools on top of others' clouds. Your vertical integration thesis holds, but nuanced: it's about end-to-end agent environments, not generic hosting. Profitability is viable now; the focus is defending moats against hyperscalers and open-source.

*Bitcoin needs pervasive open computing. Hardware-based attestations do not stand against that in principle but in practice it often does. A smart phone has many chips and one of those can be - decoupled from the main functioning of the device - provide attestations but if you want it to attest to the OS being locked down then ... well ... you run a locked down OS or don't have attestations.*