Riyadh
Failure to reach a global deal on where and how much to tax digital giants such as Google (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) or Facebook (FB.O) would result in many digital tax regimes emerging all over the world, France’s Finance Minister said.
It would also likely trigger U.S. retaliatory tariffs, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters, underscoring Washington’s determination to thwart tax rules planned by France and other countries if no global deal is reached. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of world financial leaders, Bruno Le Maire said the gathering had been very useful in establishing consensus on such global tax rules.
Finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s 20 biggest economies, the G20, met in Riyadh for talks on economic issues, with digital taxation topping their two-day agenda.
Mnuchin said the issue was being addressed in negotiations with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and he hoped it could be resolved by the end of the year.
But he said Washington would strike back at the digital taxes passed by France and others if those efforts failed.
“We’ve been very consistent in saying we think the digital services tax is discriminatory in nature against digital companies, and specifically a handful of U.S. companies,” he said.—Reuters
