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Trump roadblock: Push for global digital tax agreement stalls amid tensions

"Vestager’s Google strategy faces its first big court test"

Several senior officials told POLITICO the stand-off between France and the US may have scuppered chances of reaching a deal on how to tax the digital world.

By Mark Scott
1/7/20, 5:12 PM CET
Updated 1/8/20, 8:57 AM CET

Hopes for a global deal to tax firms like Facebook and Google have been significantly scaled back ahead of a meeting later this month involving more than 130 countries, several senior officials told POLITICO.

The growing pessimism about overhauling how the digital economy is taxed comes as tensions mount .. https://www.politico.eu/tag/digital-tax/ .. between France and the United States over Paris' digital tax rules, which overwhelmingly target American tech firms.

[...]

Efforts to create a pan-European Union digital tax regime also are back on the agenda under the new European Commission despite pushback from countries like Ireland and Luxembourg that have attracted thousands of international companies to their shores by offering them low corporate tax rates.

In response, Washington said it would slap $2.4 billion .. https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2019/december/conclusion-ustr%E2%80%99s-investigation .. of tariffs on French goods, including on the country's winemakers, in retaliation for the digital services tax, and threatened to do the same to other countries that followed suit. Phil Hogan, the European commissioner for trade, told reporters on Tuesday .. https://www.politico.eu/pro/eu-trade-boss-backs-france-in-transatlantic-spat-over-digital-tax .. that the 28-country bloc would back Paris in any trade dispute with Washington over the country's digital services tax.

In a letter sent to the OECD last month .. https://www.orbitax.com/news/archive.php/U.S.-Treasury-Secretary-Sends--40283 , Mnuchin, the U.S. Treasury secretary, also questioned the need to overhaul how the digital economy was taxed, while calling on countries to stop imposing their unilateral digital tax rules until a global consensus could be reached.

https://www.politico.eu/article/digital-tax-taxation-oecd-france-united-states-bruno-le-maire-facebook-amazon-apple-google/