For Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, considers that they were “the only winners” of the crisis linked to the coronavirus.
France will tax the digital giants in December, after the failure of negotiations at the OECD, confirmed Sunday the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, on France 3.
“We had suspended the collection of the tax until the OECD negotiations were concluded. This negotiation has failed, so we will collect a tax on the digital giants next December,” he said during the Dimanche en Politique program.
Facebook: 8.46 million corporate taxes paid in France
“France must be proud to be one of the first countries in Europe, with Spain, with Italy, with Austria to levy fair taxation on digital people, whom I recall are the only winners of this crisis”, underlined the minister.
Last Monday, the 137 countries negotiating under the aegis of the OECD failed to find an agreement for large digital companies to “pay their fair share of tax”.
While the OECD is confident that it will succeed by mid-2021, its Secretary General Angel Gurria has predicted, in the event of definitive failure, “an increase in unilateral actions, retaliatory measures”, and in fine, a new “trade war”.
These new tax rules, in addition to pacifying international economic relations, could bring in 200 billion dollars a year, welcome when the pandemic has “widened the public deficits”, had argued Mr. Gurria at a press conference. Opposite, the digital giants have “taken advantage” of the digitization of the economy, accelerated by the various containment measures in the world.
For example, Facebook achieved a turnover of nearly $ 70 billion in 2019, but paid 8.46 million euros in corporate tax in France in 2019. A tiny fraction of the 6, 3 billion in taxes paid by the group, mainly in the United States.
