French economy and finance minister Bruno Le Maire, one of the main proponents of a digital tax on global internet multinationals. AFP via Getty Images
The French government has sent notices to multinational internet companies that they should pay the countrys digital tax in December, a finance ministry spokesman said on Wednesday. The government canceled a few weeks ago its earlier decision to suspend the collection of the controversial levy.
The outlook: The Trump administration may now choose to go ahead with the tariffs in its last two months in power, but whatever it decides or not, the situation will have to be dealt with by incoming president Joe Biden and his team.
The clear hope of European governments is that the U.S. will rejoin the OECD talks, so that an international agreement on global tax can be struck next year. This should not be too difficult: Even the companies targeted by the measure have indicated their preference for a global tax, which would spare them the compliance costs of having to deal with many different national ones.
The OECD talks had made serious progress on the technical level and were seen to be nearing a positive conclusion. With the coronavirus recession and governments strapped for cash, tax avoidance on the level used by big multinationals has become politically indefensible. A deal shouldnt be too hard to find next year, making the current Franco-American skirmish obsolete.
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