Canadas digital services tax is here. How could it affect you? – National [Video]

The Digital Services Tax is now in effect.

Foreign tech giants must now pay a three per cent levy on revenue from Canadian users, retroactive to 2022, after the federal government enacted the measure with an order-in-council on June 28.

Many of those large companies are based in the United States and the American government and business communities on both sides of the border have called for Ottawa to stop the measure.

“It’s a risky idea,” University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist told Global News.

“If we take a look at how (the United States) reacted to similar taxes from other countries in the past,” he continued, “they’ve used tariffs to try to make up for what they perceive to be lost revenue, or to almost punish other countries for moving in that direction.”

The Office of the United States Trade Representative previously said it will do what’s necessary to halt Canada’s tax on …