EU governments are divided on a tax plan for large online companies such as Google and Facebook. They also fear retaliation from the United States, from which the biggest online players come.
According to the proposal of the EU Executive Commission, Union countries would charge a fee of 3% from the revenues of large digital companies that are accused of tax avoidance by shifting profits to countries with low tax levels. However, this plan requires the support of all 28 However, many of them are opposed to such a solution.
The Commission's efforts to come up with a system to ensure that online companies pay an appropriate tax are carried out in parallel with the study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, in order to develop a multilateral approach.
„It is very difficult to reach an agreement on a digital tax because many technical problems have not yet been resolved," said Danish Finance Minister Kristian Jensen. He added that the proposed EU tax had been developed in a way that would mainly hit US companies and thus attract US retaliation. His observations reflect those made by diplomats from several countries of the Union, including Germany, Sweden, Ireland and Malta.
On one It has been pointed out from the meetings of the Community that the tax cannot enter at least because it has to wait for the OECD to complete its work.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stressed that the adoption of the Digital Taxation Directive should take place by the end of this year. "There will be a question of the implementation of the Directive. We are open to this because we know that the OECD is doing its job," Le Maire said.
EU countries discuss two options presented by the European Commission. first The plan would involve taxation of the turnover of digital companies imposed unilaterally by the EU before the agreement was reached at global level. This approach is opposed by several countries, including small ones, such as Ireland, where many technology companies record sales profits in larger EU countries.
second The option which has been sidelined so far would have revised the tax rules so that companies could be taxed on the basis of their "digital presence" in the country. This option would require more time, which could in turn help to coordinate project work with OECD analyses.
Author:
Katarzyna Kołbuś - Editor leading RB Magazine. From Over 10 years related to industry press, including the Financial Gazette and portal ipip.com.pl, which is devoted to finance, taxation, law, politics and the economy. She graduated from Polish philology at the UMCS and the language editing of the text at the University of Warsaw.