Well it’s still only early January and Britain seems to have turned white rather than sunburnt, but for many of us the silly season seems to have started ridiculously early with story of the French contemplation of taxing Google ad revenues.

According to this morning’s Metro the plans would also effect both MSN and Yahoo!, though with annual revenues in France of £720 million, Google would be undoubtedly the biggest target. Details of how this would work seem currently to be rather sketchy, though Brand Republic has suggested that Carla Bruni’s dismay at musician’s losing royalties through illegal downloads, might have been the inspiration behind the concept.

The reactions to the plan have been somewhat predictable, with the French claiming that the tax would allow the funding of neglected creative arts and is only a tax on ‘enrichment without any limit or compensation,’ whilst internet commentators stating that this is a ‘tax on innovation.’ So who would be the winners and losers from any tax of this nature.

Like most people, I’m not a great fan of tax, knowing it to be a necessary but hardly palatable part of life. This tax though seems to right from the conceptual stage, regressive in nature, seeking to prop up unprofitable and therefore likely unpopular creative arts with what almost amounts to a blanket tax on internet activity.

For many advertisers and publishers, AdWords and AdSense are vital routes to market and revenue generators. With the continues pressure on display and CPM, what the industry can’t afford now is an attack on CPC/PPC advertisimg.

I could be incorrect here, but I really believe that should a tax be imposed, Google quite rightly, will not swallow the entire hit in revenues. Advertisers will end up having to pay more for the same results, whilst publishers will receive less for the same level of activity.

Despite the growth in online ad revenues, it is no secret that lots of publishers are struggling to generate a decent return from advertising presently. It will be interesting to see whether these proposals do eventually become something other than just a soundbite, but I am concerned that at a time when governments throughout the world are struggling to balance the books, internet revenues could come to be seen as an easy option to be taxed.