U.S. withdraws digital tax tariff threat for European countries
The United States has withdrawn its tariff threat against five European countries over their digital services taxes.
As part of a deal, Austria, Britain, France, Italy, Spain get to keep their digital taxes in place until a global tax agreement comes into force in 2023.
The countries had agreed to withdraw their digital services taxes as part of a sweeping global tax deal, which saw 136 countries agree a 15% global minimum corporate tax and grant some taxing rights on large profitable companies to market countries.
This measure was largely aimed at big U.S. tech firms including Google and Facebook.
Under the agreement announced by Washington, any digital taxes the countries collect from such firms after January 2022 that exceed what they would have to pay under the new rules would instead be credited against the firms’ future tax liabilities in those countries.
In exchange, the United States has agreed to drop its planned tariff retaliation against the five countries on the grounds that their taxes discriminated against American companies. The agreement does not include India and Turkey, who have imposed digital services taxes and continue to face tariff threats from the U.S.