Brussels, BELGIUM — European Finance Ministers are meeting in Brussels tomorrow, Tuesday, for the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meeting where they will consider the EU Digital Services Tax (DST) proposal. The DST would levy a 3% tax on certain so-called digital companies’ turnover. It would apply from January 2022.
G20 leaders this weekend declared that they will “work together to seek a consensusbased solution to address the impacts of the digitalization of the economy on the international tax system with an update in 2019 and a final report by 2020.”
CCIA supports the leadership of the G20/OECD to reach global consensus on international tax reform. We agree with the OECD that “there is no consensus on either the merit or need for interim measures” which will likely have a “negative impact on the overall welfare of an economy”. Besides the European Commission, Spain and the United Kingdom, have also proposed so-called “interim” digital services taxes.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Europe’s Vice President, Christian Borggreen:
“We welcome the G20 leaders’ commitment to achieve global consensus on international tax reform. We encourage European finance ministers to focus on achieving global tax reform, rather than pursuing rushed, unilateral actions which would harm Europe’s digitising economies and hinder international cooperation.”