No agreement was reached at a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Brussels regarding a plan a plan on the taxing of digital giants like Google and Facebook. Now ministers will try again in 2020 whilst focusing on trying to reach a common position for the reform of digital taxation at a global level.
Meanwhile, US trade officials were quoted as saying that the US was weighing whether to bring a complaint to the World Trade Organization against “discriminatory” new taxes on digital giants being planned by EU nations.
The tax rules that currently exist were designed to apply to business models with a physical presence, which usually is the basis for the governments to exercise their tax powers.
The issue came about with the rise of new technologies as tax rules that currently exist were designed to apply to business models with a physical presence, which usually is the basis for the governments to exercise their tax powers.
Many digital businesses have customers and generate economic value in a country without having a presence in that country. This mismatch — and the fact that digital businesses make their money mostly from intangible assets — poses a challenge when it comes to taxation.
Via Deutsche Welle
