It is worth noting that over the past year, countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Turkey have successively announced their own "digital tax" collection schemes, with tax rates ranging from 2% to 7.5%, and the main tax objects are global Internet giants.
Among them, France has taken the lead. This year, it began to levy digital tax on enterprises with an annual operating income of more than 750 million euros, of which at least 25 million euros come from France, with a tax rate of 3% of the operating income.
So far, countries have not reached a consensus on the issue of digital tax. With the unilateral actions of countries, the game of global economic governance is slowly unfolding.
Why digital tax?
As far as Europe is concerned, the tax systems of various countries are mainly aimed at the profits of the country where the enterprise is located. The country where the enterprise entity is located depends on whether the enterprise has employees, factories, equipment, sites, tangible assets, etc. in a certain country.
In this context, Internet companies tend to settle in countries with loose tax system and low tax rate and pay most taxes, such as Ireland. To a certain extent, this has caused the phenomenon of tax injustice.
Take Amazon as an example. In 2017, the revenue of Amazon's UK business increased three times over the previous year to £ 1.98 billion, while the corporate tax paid decreased from £ 7.4 million in 2016 to £ 4.56 million, a decrease of nearly 40%.
According to the data of the European Commission, the effective tax rate that EU enterprises in traditional industries need to pay is 23%, while the average of large technology enterprises is only 9.5%.
In March 2018, the European Commission announced a legislative proposal to impose a 3% digital tax on large Internet companies. According to the legislative proposal, any EU member state can tax profits arising from Internet business in its territory.
However, some EU Member States, such as Ireland, Finland and the Czech Republic, oppose digital tax. Member states could not agree on how to define the content of 'digital services' in the revenue of technology companies.
After the European Union's digital tax proposal was shelved, France decided to go first. France accuses Internet giants of making big money in France and then using clever operation to transfer profits to low tax countries such as Ireland.
Bruno & middot, Minister of economy and finance of France; Lemmel bluntly said that technology giants pay so little tax, 'where do we spend on education, health care and environmental protection?'
In addition to France, some other countries are also ready to move.
The UK plans to launch a digital service tax for technology giants in April 2020, with a tax rate of 2%; Italy has announced plans to introduce a digital tax in its new draft budget, which will take effect in 2020; The Czech Republic, which initially opposed the imposition of digital tax, also launched a digital tax proposal & hellip, following the example of other European countries& hellip;
Sun Nanxiang, an assistant researcher at the Institute of international law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that fair tax payment by Internet enterprises is a global issue, but France, the United Kingdom and other countries are trying to impose a digital tax on Internet enterprises by unilateral action in an attempt to change the tax rules of the global digital economy.
Why is it difficult to reach consensus?
When many countries launch their own digital tax plans, an undeniable fact is that there is no unified digital tax in the world.
Although the organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) is committed to promoting a global agreement on digital tax by 2020. However, due to the slow process of coordination of international tax rules, OECD still faces the problems of rapid development of business model of digital economy and differences in tax base distribution.
This week, at the 2019 Fortune Global Forum in Paris, OECD Secretary General Angier & middot; Gurria said that the OECD hopes to introduce new regulations on 'taxing digital companies' before January next year.
Cai Chang, Professor of the school of Finance and taxation of the Central University of Finance and economics, accepted that China News Agency is a through train reporter that the digital tax is actually a reflection of the current global interest segmentation pattern. Different countries have different division of labor in the industrial chain and supply chain, resulting in economic interest disputes.
Although the OECD has given its own deadline, some countries still choose to launch digital tax plans.
Not long ago, Turkey announced a draft law on the introduction of digital service tax and submitted it to the Turkish parliament for approval. The tax rate of digital service tax is 7.5%, which is much higher than the proposed tax rate in other countries.
The draft law says: 'the development of technology allows international digital service companies to carry out commercial operations in a country where there is no entity. Taking into account the practices of other countries, the draft aims to tax the income of enterprises providing such services. "
Some analysts pointed out that the example of Turkey is likely to be followed by the governments of other emerging countries. For a long time, the multilateral system has been indifferent to their concerns about the consequences of unfair globalization. Turkey's tax proposal has rekindled the debate on the fairness of globalization and the role of international governance.
Pascal & middot, responsible for tax policy of OECD; St. amans said: 'the current system is under pressure. If we don't eliminate the tension, the current system can't be maintained.'
It is worth noting that in the face of the threat of digital tax, the Information Technology Industry Council, a Washington lobbying group representing technology companies such as Google and Facebook, warned that digital tax may lead to double taxation and 'pose a real and significant threat to companies in all industries'.
In Google's written testimony, Nicholas bramble, the company's trade policy adviser, said that France's digital tax could undermine the procedures of the organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD).
Facebook said in a statement: 'we continue to support a multilateral approach like the OECD. We welcome the careful study by the office of the United States trade representative of ways in which there are unilateral measures that discriminate against American companies and may stifle innovation. "
US Treasury Secretary manuchin also expressed concern about this and urged foreign counterparts to formulate a global plan within the framework of OECD.
Monika loving, national business director of BDO International Tax Services Group, said that if countries do not reach a consensus on digital tax, people will be worried about unilateral measures, 'we may see that the timeline may exceed the stated period'.
Cai Chang also said that the multi polarization of the world has led to different views on digital tax. It is difficult for OECD to reach a unified agreement. It may be a long process to reach an agreement after the formation of international tax rules.