Four EU Member States are pushing for stricter taxation of tech giants

The finance ministers of four EU countries want tech giants to be taxed not only on profits at their EU headquarters, but also on turnover in the countries where they make them. Now it would be too easy for companies to pay very little tax.

That is what the ministers say in a joint letter that the Reuters news agency has seen. The initiative comes from France. That country is reportedly assisted by Spain, Italy and Germany. “We must no longer accept that these companies do business in Europe while paying so little tax,” they write in the letter, which was sent to Estonia, the current president of the Council of the EU, and the European Commission.

In the current system, for example, Google pays very little tax because the company’s European headquarters is in Ireland. It does offer goods and services in the rest of Europe, but only pays the very low Irish tax rate because that’s where the profits are made. Amazon is also mentioned as an example in the Reuters message, but it is unclear whether companies are mentioned in the letter and which they are.

Ministers call for a ‘equalizing tax’ to ensure that tech companies pay tax not only on profits in the EU country where they are located, but also on the turnover they realize in the countries where the goods and services are sold. to be taken. This up to the corporate tax level of the country in question. The officials who drafted the letter want to discuss the matter at a meeting in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on September 15-16.

France was thrown out earlier this year in a lawsuit against Google over taxpayers’ money. The country wanted to see a total of 1.12 billion euros from the search engine giant for the period from 2005 to 2010. This would be the total amount of taxpayers’ money Google saved by settling primarily in Ireland.