Original title: The sword refers to the US technology giants, and the EU antitrust is fully launched. Will the digital tax “die”?
The United States agreed to suspend the 25% punitive tariff for up to 180 days to allow more time to complete the negotiation of the OECD and G20 on the digital tax reform agreement.
Recently, Europe has made heavy moves against US technology giants in antitrust enforcement. On June 7, the French Competition Authority (FCA) fined Google 220 million euros for abuse of its dominant position in the advertising service market.
The advertising business is also targeted at Facebook. On the 4th, the European Commission and the British Competition and Market Authority (CMA) announced that they would formally investigate Facebook to investigate whether it has unfairly used advertising data and distorted the competition in classified advertising. So far, the four major US technology giants GAFA have been formally investigated by the European Union.
Seeing that their own domestic companies have suffered such severe blows overseas, especially when more and more countries have proposed “digital taxes” against these large technology companies. Last week, the US government paid a total of 2 billion yuan to six countries, including the United Kingdom. A 25% import tariff is imposed on U.S. dollar goods as a punishment for implementing digital service tax policies in these countries. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said: “Unless international tax negotiations can find a solution to prevent these countries from unilaterally levying digital taxes, they will be subject to additional tariffs.”
However, disputes between countries on the “digital tax” have eased. The Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers meeting held in London on June 5 reached a global tax reform agreement. The global minimum corporate tax rate is set at 15%, and the cancellation of the digital tax will be discussed.
EU targets U.S. tech giants
Ten years ago, Google was sued by the European Union for allegedly using the relevant market monopoly to engage in anti-competitive behavior in the search engine field.Ten years later, in the global anti-monopoly wave of science and technology, the other three of the GAFA Big FourAmazon、apple, Facebook has also been all accused by the European Union. The latest news shows that on the 4th, the European Commission announced an antitrust investigation on the use of Facebook advertising data.
“Nearly 3 billion people use Facebook every month, and nearly 7 million companies advertise on Facebook. Facebook collects a large number of social network user activity data to enable it to target specific consumer groups.” EU Competition Policy Director Margrethe Vestager pointed out in the statement, “We will carefully study whether this data gives Facebook an excessive competitive advantage, especially in the field of online classified advertising-people buy and sell goods here every day, Facebook also collects receipts here and other Companies compete. In today’s digital economy, the use of data should not distort competition.”
On April 30, based on the survey results, the European CommissionappleIssued a statement of objection, claimingappleApp store rules abuse market dominance and disrupt the competitive order of music streaming media application distribution. This statement of objection comes from music streaming application Spotify’s previous accusations against Apple’s App Store policy. The European Union believes that Apple controls Apple devices and iOS systems, while providing a music service Apple Music that competes with Spotify. In this market, Apple owns and abuses its market monopoly.
In addition, the European Commission hasAmazonTwo rounds of antitrust investigations were initiated, and the results of the first round of investigations were notified in November 2020.AmazonThere is a competitive relationship with third-party sellers on the platform in the retail business, but Amazon illegally abuses its dominant market position and uses the sales data of these third-party sellers to profit from its own products. Currently, the European Commission has launched a second round of antitrust investigations on Amazon’s shopping cart and Prime membership functions.
In addition, the EU has also made legislative changes to regulate these technology giants. On December 15 last year, the European Commission formally submitted two draft laws, the “Digital Services Law” and the “Digital Market Law”. People’s unfair business practices promote effective competition.
Where does the “digital tax” go?
Although American technology giants face more severe antitrust pressure in the United States, the good news is that the tit-for-tat “digital tax” is expected to ease.
The G7 Finance Ministers’ Meeting held in London on the 4th and 5th passed a historic agreement on global tax reform. The member states pledged to implement at least 15% of the world’s lowest corporate tax rate, between the new international tax rules and the abolition of digital taxes. Make adjustments.
Gao Lingyun, director of the International Investment Research Office of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald: “The headquarters and business locations of large multinational digital companies are located in different places, leading to business in high-tax countries. , The situation of paying taxes in low-tax areas is the background of the digital tax. However, after the G7 reached a minimum corporate tax agreement of 15%, there is no tax policy depression among the member states, so no matter where the company is headquartered, it will face With the same tax policy, the so-called digital tax is no longer needed in the long run.”
At the G7 Finance Ministers’ Meeting, the host country, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, stated that we have reached a historic agreement on global tax reform, requiring the largest multinational technology giants to pay a fair share of taxation in the UK. U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen also pointed out: “This global tax reform plan will target large profitable companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook.”
Although the implementation of a unified global minimum corporate tax rate means that multinational companies have less room to find tax havens, this transnational tax reform agreement has won the support of American technology giants. On June 5th, Nick Clegg, vice president of Facebook, stated on social media that he has long called for the reform of global tax rules, welcomed the important progress made in the international tax reform process, and realized that this may allow Facebook to pay more in different regions. tax.
Currently, among the G7 member states, the UK and Italy have implemented digital taxes. For a long time, American technology giants have made a lot of money from doing business in these European countries, but they have repeatedly been criticized for failing to pay considerable taxes where they are operating. Therefore, the local government hopes to let the technology giants fulfill their obligations through a “digital tax.” .
As a counterattack, the United States has repeatedly issued harsh words to these countries, asking them to abolish the “digital tax” imposed on US technology giants such as GAFA. On June 2, the United States announced that it would impose a 25% punitive tariff on imports of US$2 billion from six countries including Britain, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, and Australia as a counterattack against their “digital tax” policy. The Office of the United States Trade Representative stated that the digital tax policies of these six countries have been discriminating against US technology giants. Unless international tax negotiations can find a solution to prevent these countries from unilaterally levying digital taxes, additional tariffs will be imposed on them.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai stated that the U.S. is committed to finding multilateral solutions to a series of key issues related to international taxation, including our concerns about digital service taxes. The United States remains committed to reaching consensus on international taxation issues through the OECD and G20 processes.
At present, the United States has agreed to suspend the levy of 25% punitive tariffs for up to 180 days to allow more time to complete the OECD and G20 negotiations on the digital tax reform agreement. It is expected that relevant meetings will be held in the coming months to further discuss this new agreement.
Gao Lingyun analyzed to reporters: “The digital tax proposed by various countries is mainly aimed at American companies. This is also one of the motivations for the United States to promote the world‘s lowest corporate tax rate of 15% among the G7. In fact, except for Ireland, the Virgin Islands, etc. In addition to tax havens that may conflict, other countries should be willing to follow up on this global minimum corporate tax rate agreement, because this can prevent companies from outflowing for tax avoidance.”
(Source: 21st Century Business Herald)
(Editor in charge: DF134)
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