International taxes

Spain will introduce a digital services tax at the end of the year that would hit the revenue of companies such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in a move likely to draw the ire of the U.S. administration.

Mark Zuckerberg for the first time said he supports efforts to create a global digital tax that would ultimately raise the amount Facebook Inc. pays to foreign countries, in a move that may boost efforts to put a new levy in effect by year-end.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, have introduced legislation to block the Treasury Department from providing a way for multinational corporations to choose the lowest available tax rate.

Updating global tax rules could boost government revenue by as much as $100 billion, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Thursday in an effort to spur complex negotiations between world powers.

The threat of a new transatlantic trade war diminished after 137 countries agreed to continue negotiations aimed at creating rules for taxing multinational technology companies that receive foreign revenue.

About 135 of the world's countries are negotiating a radical change to the rules about where and how much multinational companies pay in taxes.

Apple Inc. reduced a massive back tax bill it must pay Ireland after other governments claimed a slice of the payment last year, according to regulatory filings.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin weighed in on the debate about a carbon tax in Davos, saying technological developments would make it redundant.

Having just persuaded France to hold off on a digital tax that would hurt its biggest technology firms, the U.S. is facing a similar threat from another part of Europe.

The U.S. and Europe are making progress toward a global pact on the taxation of digital services, with France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, saying on Thursday that American officials agreed on a blueprint for negotiations.