EU leans towards taxing Big Tech firms

Initial agreement to be thrashed out before year end, France says

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he remains optimistic that the European Union will be able to reach an agreement by the year end, on taxing digital companies.

A proposal aimed at ensuring tech multinationals pay their fair share in tax was discussed by EU finance ministers last month, amid growing concern that corporations are benefiting from an outdated framework that fails to adequately deal with online businesses.

Some countries would prefer to wait for an international approach rather than back an EU-only plan.

US tension concerns

France is leading a push for the introduction of an EU tax on revenues of tech giants such as Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. until the world’s biggest economies can agree on a global system. Some EU governments are concerned that pushing ahead with such a levy — which would target some of the biggest US companies — could exacerbate trans-Atlantic tensions.

“There is a long list of European countries in favour of digital taxation and a very short of countries against,” Le Maire said. “And there are also some countries asking technical questions.”