Daily Management Review

EU Hopes Biden Administration Of US Will Clarify Digital Tax Position In 2 Months


11/30/2020




EU Hopes Biden Administration Of US Will Clarify Digital Tax Position In 2 Months
The official position of the United States on the question of digital taxation will be made clear by the incoming administration of Joe Biden within a period two months of taking over the White House, hopes the European Union, said reports quoting a source in the French Finance Ministry on Monday.
 
Deliberations are taking place in the EU about whether to push ahead with the plans of imposing a tax all across the EU over digital services that are offered by companies such as Google and Amazon in case there is no global agreement on a deal for framing the rules and regulations for imposing taxes on digital services and companies across borders is not arrived at by middle of next year. 
 
Earlier this year, the negotiations on such as an agreement that will be used for updating the rules and regulations for the era of digital commerce and one that is being led by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) did not yield any outcome. Just prior to the run up to the US presidential elections, there were concerns expressed by the Donald Trump's administration about whether such as multilateral deal would be hit American digital giants such as Google and Amazon after which the US backed out of the deal temporarily.
 
In March, a review of the current situation over the digital tax agreement will be conducted by heads of state of the EU and the EU government. It is expected that a decision about the course of action that the EU should take on the issue will be arrived at then, said the reports quoting the source in the French Finance Ministry source.
 
"Obviously, March was not chosen by chance. March will be two months after Biden takes office ... We hope to have contacts within these two months with the new American administration," the source said.
 
"Depending on what the Biden administration says, the European Council - it's at the level of EU heads of state and government - will give guidelines in March," the source added.
 
A push urging the EU nations to get a digital tax framework ready for the EU by early 2021 is being made by France. The important EU member country hopes that new regulations on such as a digital tax would be framed so that it can be quickly implemented if there is a deadlock in the talks for a global framework on the issue by the OECD by the middle of next year.
 
Last year, its own form of taxes on digital services offered by large digital companies such as Google and Amazon was implemented by France and the French government has promised to scarp that taxation regimen once there is an international framework or regulations on taxing digital service providing companies. France has temporarily suspended the tax until December this year till the negotiations continue under the supervision of the OECD.
 
(Source:www.business-standard.com)