TAXATION OF DIGITAL GIANTS

 The US Treasury announces the withdrawal of punitive tariffs against France, Austria, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The United States announced Thursday the withdrawal of punitive tariffs against Austria, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom which had been introduced in retaliation for national taxes imposed on the giants of the digital.

The Treasury has reached an agreement with these countries on this trade dispute which follows the adoption of a global taxation on companies within the framework of the OECD, the Treasury explained in a statement.

The OECD recently announced an agreement between 136 countries to reform the global taxation of multinationals. It includes, on the one hand, a taxation of the digital giants and, on the other hand, a minimum taxation to avoid tax optimization.

An agreement at the G20

The G20 announced last week that the "two new pillars would be operational by the end of 2023" or even "early 2024". Pending the implementation of this new tax system, the national taxes paid will be credited to the great American champions like Google, Amazon, Facebook or Apple, known by the acronym Gafa, or even Netflix, detailed the Treasury in a press release. .

In return, Washington will not impose tariffs on a multitude of goods from the countries mentioned, he added. The Biden administration had already suspended, in June, for six months, these customs duties after a year of investigation by the services of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). The USTR had concluded that the Gafa taxes of these countries were indeed "discriminatory" against the large American groups. He then recommended to impose "additional tariffs on certain goods from these countries".

Ambassador Katherine Tai had, however, decided to suspend them "immediately" for a period of "up to 180 days" while the multilateral negotiations were concluded within the framework of the OECD and the G20. The G20 confirmed last week that national taxes would remain in place as long as international taxation was not effective.