Tax On Digital Giants

France, Germany, Italy, Spain seek tax on digital giants' revenues

SEPTEMBER 9, 2017
PARIS (Reuters) - France, Germany, Italy and Spain want digital multinationals like Amazon

and Google

to be taxed in Europe based on their revenues, rather than only profits as now, their finance ministers said in a joint letter.

Currently such companies are often taxed on profits booked by subsidiaries in low-tax countries like Ireland even though the revenue originated from other EU countries.

“We should no longer accept that these companies do business in Europe while paying minimal amounts of tax to our treasuries,” the four ministers wrote in a letter seen by Reuters.

The letter, signed by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Wolfgang Schaeuble of Germany, Pier-Carlo Padoan of Italy and Luis de Guindos, was addressed to the EU’s Estonian presidency with the bloc’s executive Commission in copy.