The European Union’s plan to propose a new digital-services tax is unlikely to undermine global talks aimed at eliminating such levies, according to the head of the international group spearheading the discussions.
“I know for a fact that the European Union is very conscious of the importance of this deal on international tax reform,” Mathias Cormann, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said Thursday in a Bloomberg Television interview.
“They are also very conscious of not doing anything that would undermine the success of that international tax reform. And I’m very confident that through further conversations between the U.S., between Europe, and all the other stakeholders, that a sensible way forward will be found.”
Cormann spoke on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in Venice, where finance ministers are due to give political approval to a technical deal among 131 countries on a global minimum corporate tax and new rules on how to share the proceeds from levies on large multinational firms.
The U.S. has maintained that taxes on digital services discriminate against its companies. The global accord is designed to replace those taxes with a new system of levies based on where big multinational firms do business.
After attending the G-20 in Venice, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Brussels for talks with European officials. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said earlier in the week that the EU plan is not yet finalized, and its approach would be very different from the OECD deal in that all companies would be affected and it is not a question of reallocating profits between countries.
