Washington — According to new findings released today by the Computer & Communications Industry Association, discriminatory digital services taxes (DSTs) in five key markets pulled in approximately $3.6 billion in 2025, the highest annual total on record and a 20 percent increase over 2024.
DSTs in the U.K., France, Spain, Austria, and Italy cost U.S. companies over $13 billion from 2020-2025. The United Kingdom’s 2 percent DST remains the single largest source of receipts, collecting $1.25 billion in 2025 and $4.34 billion since 2021. France collected $875 million last year under its DST, followed by Italy at $720 million, Spain at $463 million, and Austria at $155 million. Italy’s 2025 Budget Law also removed the domestic revenue threshold from its DST, expanding the tax’s reach. CCIA is also tracking additional DSTs in markets such as Türkiye, proposals in Korea, Belgium and Poland, and similar discriminatory tax-like measures in other jurisdictions, such as Australia.
Because these taxes are structured around revenue thresholds and business models characteristic of large U.S. digital exporters, the burden falls overwhelmingly on American firms, shrinking the U.S. tax base and expanding tax revenues payable abroad.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Vice President of Digital Trade Jonathan McHale:
“DST extractions are not a plateau, they are a ramp. Every year that DSTs remain in place, more revenue earned by American workers and shareholders is siphoned off by governments that designed a burden to hit U.S. companies and almost no one else. Multilateral negotiations were supposed to address this discrimination, and could still do so but pending a comprehensive solution, the receipts keep climbing, with U.S. firms and the U.S. government holding the bag. The Administration has the tools it needs under Section 301, and today’s findings show why using them is overdue.”
