According to the European Commission, (American) tech giants currently pay on average about 9 percent tax, less than half of the 24 percent that other companies in the EU pay. According to Brussels, this large difference leads to unfair competition and also causes the EU to miss out on significant tax revenues.
Group specialists emphasize that large technology companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon generate billions of euros in turnover annually in Europe, while at the same time they use essential infrastructure such as electricity and telecommunications networks, which currently need substantial expansion.
As early as 2018, the European Commission proposed a digital services tax of 3 percent on the largest digital companies. But after eight years, this has still not been implemented, partly due to the stalled negotiations at OECD level on a global tax solution.
Lara Wolters: “The recalcitrant and unreliable policy of the Trump administration means that Europe can no longer wait for global solutions that do not come. If the strongest shoulders do not carry their weight, ultimately our entire society loses.”
“For European citizens and companies, paying taxes is self-evident. But when the most powerful tech companies make billions without contributing fairly, it touches on something fundamental: the sense of justice,” Wolters said ahead of the hearing in the European Parliament.
According to the S&D politicians, the EU can no longer afford to wait for the global OECD negotiations. Recent international developments make it extremely unlikely that the negotiations on digital taxation will lead to a fair outcome. This is also concluded based on a recent study of international tax agreements, in which the United States once again secured an exemption.
According to GroenLinks-PvdA, the failure to introduce a European digital tax entails significant costs for the European tax base, the internal market, and society as a whole. In the context of the ongoing negotiations on the EU multiannual financial framework (MFF), GroenLinks-PvdA calls on the European Commission to introduce such a new European BigTech tax as soon as possible.
The article Appeal in European Parliament for higher digitax on American BigTech first appeared on IEDE NEWS.